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Motion of the Council of Allegheny County establishing Council policy with regard to budgeting for the County's salary expenses.
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WHEREAS, pursuant to the Home Rule Charter of Allegheny County, Article IV, §2(c), Allegheny County Council is specifically vested with the power and duty to "[a]dopt balanced annual operating and capital budgets as provided in Article VII"; and
WHEREAS, in 2019, salaries and pay for County personnel were planned to amount to $329,979,190, or just over 41% of the County's total planned expenditures of $802,896,368 (2019 Allegheny County Comprehensive Fiscal Plan, p. 6); and
WHEREAS, in 2020, salaries and pay for County personnel were planned to amount to $343,237,280, or just over 41.3% of the County's total planned expenditures of $830,421,505 (2020 Allegheny County Comprehensive Fiscal Plan, p.6); and
WHEREAS, from 2019 to 2020 alone, the County's expected salary and pay expenditures increased by over $13.25 million, although some of this increase was mandated pursuant to the terms of collective bargaining or other similar contractual agreements; and
WHEREAS, according to the 2019 and 2020 Comprehensive Fiscal Plans, salaries were expected to be the largest category of County expenditures in both years; and
WHEREAS, it is the judgment of Council that the County's workforce is a valued and foundationally important element of the services that the County provides, and the establishment of a uniform system for calculating annual salaries would both foster equity in the County's salary structure while simultaneously aiding in controlling County expenditures, by eliminating the possibility of widely disparate salary increases; and
WHEREAS, it is further the judgment of Council that the significant amount spent by the County on employee salaries inherently requires a uniform and transparent mechanism for establishing the amounts of those expenditures; and
WHEREAS, it is accordingly the desire of Council to state internal policy for establishing such a mechanism.
The Council of the County of Allegheny therefore hereby moves as follows:
County Council shall not adopt any annual budget which contains any line item, appropriation, or other provision relating to staff salaries in any County office, bureau, division, or department that increases by more than three percent (3%) from the budgeted amount for such entity's staff salaries in the previous fiscal year. The limitation contained within this Motion shall not apply to the extent that a given entity's increase may be required under the terms of a collective bargaining or other similar agreement that shall be in force at any time during the year for which a budget is approved.