The $2.30 raise commissioners approved earlier this week for Habersham County Sheriff’s deputies and detention officers is meant to help with recruitment and retention. It may also mean a tax increase for county residents.
In March, the sheriff’s office began experiencing a high employee turnover rate and sat at the third lowest-paid department in Northeast Georgia’s surrounding law enforcement agencies. Even after the department secured a one dollar per hour raise, as well as the county’s three percent raise, Sheriff Joey Terrell tells Now Habersham his officers “remained at the bottom of the lists when it came to starting pay rates.”
After the commission’s unanimous vote to increase the department’s pay, deputy starting pay is now $19.51 per hour, and detention officer starting pay is now $16.30 per hour. The sheriff’s office employees will receive that raise during this pay cycle.
“This will help us significantly in beginning to be able to offer a competitive employment package for new hires while, at the same time, enhancing retention of current employees by increasing their pay as well,” Terrell says.
This new raise will cost the county $255,000 more than it originally estimated in this coming year’s budget. In total, the Sheriff’s Department pay will cost the county around $475,651 annually.
County manager Phil Sutton says this expense could come in the form of a property tax increase, which would raise the milage rate by approximately 0.19 mils. Habersham County’s milage rate is currently 11.682 mils.
“I think that there is a lot of room that we can adjust things where we can absorb the pay cost without raising taxes,” Commissioner Bruce Harkness tells Now Habersham. “I do believe that we have to take care of our employees, but yet, at the same time, we have to be very good stewards of the taxpayer’s money.”
The Habersham Commission will convene for their regular meeting this coming Monday, May 17, at 6 pm, during which they are expected to discuss the budget further.
