Monroe County Council Moves Toward a 2% Raise, $1M for Roads

Sep 5

Last week, during the Council’s first two budget hearings, we moved over $8.4m to secure employee health care, a 2% cost of living increase, and miles of freshly paved roads.

Why does this matter to you?
Just like last year, these fiscal moves prioritize the residents of Monroe County who will benefit from the services provided by nearly 800 public servants working for you in County Government. The Council took two strong steps for Health Care and Smooth Roads.

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Health Care

First, the Council moved $7,352,109 out of the General Fund, Providing Space for a 2% Cost of Living Increase for all County Employees in 2027, by working with the Commissioners and Employee Services.

Local government is stepping up to ensure that our employees can stay healthy, but we are also balancing our budget at the same time! We shifted this expenditure because the General Fund anticipated deficit before this motion was -$1,718,113. The Council acted and moved to another fund where the revenue was healthier.

Self-Insurance, or the health care provided for all employees, is the County’s largest expenditure, representing 13.42% of requested budgets. These costs are broken into two parts as explained here :

• The department portion is $7,352,109. This is the amount that was in the general fund that was moved. This health care investment is 4.94% of requested budgets ($147,984,775).

• The employee portion is $12,513,862; in the associated videos this is the fund referred to at 4700. This health care investment in the employee portion is 8.46% of requested budgets ($147,984,775).

This move creates space in the General Fund for a 2% Cost of Living increase for all employees. It is important to know that this additional 2% is already included in all 2027 departmental budgets because our employee’s earning power is a priority.

Smooth Roads

Second, the Council, working with the Highway Department, preserved $1m to ensure that our Roads are Paved.

We know that smooth roads are important to you, and the Monroe County Highway Department is very successful at doing this by securing Community Crossings Matching Grant (CCMG) dollars. In the past 5 years, Monroe County has brought in over $4.6m in CCMG.

• 2025 $1.5m

• 2024 $1.5m

• 2023 $1m

• 2022 $152,034.25

• 2021 $407,000.00

Securing a $1m match for the CCMG will help your Highway Department pave the maximum miles of Monroe County roads to make your commute smoother!

Next Steps

There are two important next steps to which I’ll be paying attention.

• First, any funds moved into the Economic Development lines like the two items above require collaboration with the Commissioners. So, I’ll be looking forward to those conversations at County Council meetings this month.

• Second, with the first two budget hearings in the books, we look forward to two more this week. I’ll be watching the Auditors reports at the beginning of each meeting to see the where the deficits persist; this details the work that still needs to be done.

• In night 03 look for Council to address the elections deficit in the Clerk’s budget. I’ll also be looking for ways to address the perennially expensive health care in the Jail/Correctional Center budget.

• In night 04 look for the Planning department to talk about personnel lines and the airport to talk about storm damage as well as opportunities coming from the FAA.