Harney County adopts 4% COLA, trims library staff and keeps $200,000 reserve transfer in proposed budget

Harney County Court approved a proposed budget that includes a 4% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for all county employees and rejects a simultaneous across‑the‑board step increase, approved the OSU Extension appropriation, and voted to reduce library staffing by one full‑time equivalent (FTE). The court also approved continuing a $200,000 annual transfer into the county’s operating reserve as part of the proposed budget.

Budget officer and county judge (speaking as the budget officer) proposed two alternatives at the start of the hearing: a 4% COLA for all employees with no step increases, or a lower COLA combined with selective step increases for particular positions. The court voted to adopt the 4% COLA with no step increases as the personnel assumption in the proposed budget. "My proposal this year for the budget is a 4% across the board COLA for everybody in the county," the budget officer said during the meeting, and later moved the 4% COLA option for approval. The motion was seconded and carried. The court explicitly declined to allow combined step increases plus a full COLA because that would, members said, effectively result in much larger raises for some employees (for example, a 5% step plus 4% COLA would give a near 9% total increase).

Why it matters: Commissioners and department heads framed the vote as a tradeoff between fairness, longevity-based step increases and long‑term fiscal stability. Several department heads asked the court to consider individual step increases for employees they said had been missed in prior years; the District Attorney and public health director described particular positions that department leaders wanted evaluated for late or overdue step progressions. The budget officer and other court members said Harney County is still rebuilding its reserves…