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Onondaga County budget needs early retirements to stay balanced

Ellen Abbott
/
WRVO News
Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney speaking to reporters after presenting her budget plan last week.

There seems to be plenty of interest from Onondaga County employees in an early retirement program. County officials hope that interest is real, because if not enough employees take advantage of it, there will have to be layoffs.

Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney’s $1.3 billion proposed budget stays balanced, only if it includes $8 million worth of salary cuts. That means, if not enough employees take the $10,000 buyout package, Mahoney says there will have to be layoffs. So how many people need to take that deal?

“On average, county employees earn around $50,000 and I have $8 million savings in the budget, so about 150," said Mahoney, after presenting her budget plan to the Onondaga County legislature Thursday.

Mahoney is optimistic the county will reach that number. She says at least anecdotally at this point, it looks like a large number of the 800 people eligible for for the package are considering it.

"I’m hearing about half of them are indicating to personnel they intend to retire. But whether that continues throughout October -- they have until [October] 21st -- we’ll see,” said the county executive.

Mahoney has been trimming the size of the county workforce since she became county executive in 2008. When she started there were 4,200 people on the government payroll. That number has dropped by about 1,000 since then.

“We’re not planning for layoffs. But it is true, if no one took the retirement incentive, we would have to engage in a few layoffs if we don’t meet those salary numbers.”

Ellen produces news reports and features related to events that occur in the greater Syracuse area and throughout Onondaga County. Her reports are heard regularly in regional updates in Morning Edition and All Things Considered.