Councilman wants county employees to get raise

The $17,620,463 spending draft presented by Cherokee County Interim Administrator Ben Clary to the budget committee last week contained no pay raise for county employees.

Cherokee County Councilman Bailey Humphries hopes to change that.

"I want to give the employees a raise," he said. "They deserve some kind of cost-of-living raise."

According to the draft proposal, it would cost the county about $70,000 to fund a 1 percent pay raise for county employees. A 2percent pay raise translates into $140,000, or roughly the same amount generated by a mill.

But Humphries said the money can be found by cutting some nonessential expenditures from the budget, not by raising taxes.

"There are some things in the budget that we can cut," he said. "There are some capital expendi

Harold's tures that we can eliminate."

Humphries declined to mention specific cuts.

The proposed budget did include a modest .95 tax hike to 80.35 mills.

The millage rate would translate into slightly less than a $4 increase for the owner of a $100,000 home.

The meeting starts at 5 p.m. today.