Workers can be pricey

Like most service-oriented entities, governments biggest expense is personnel.

While Douglas has a significant numbers of volunteers, we can’t rely on volunteers to do the day-to-day work that needs to be done across the county.

On the facing page, Deputy Justin Fricke lays out the perspective of the county’s rank and file law enforcement for the upcoming contract negotiations.

We’ve heard again and again how difficult recruiting is for garbage collectors to teachers to attorneys in the county.

Increased housing costs have priced many potential employees out of the home market while increased gas costs are eating into the earnings of the roughly half of the county’s workforce that commutes.

While issues finding qualified employees is far from limited to just government, the difference is that we’re all paying for those salaries in one way or another.

At the end of the month, Douglas County has scheduled four days of budget hearings. While the county’s budget is bigger than most, pretty much every governmental entity in Douglas County, and there are a lot, will be going through their budget process.

We get that people around here have an allergy to financing government. Even our eyes start to water when officials talk about revenue shortfalls.

While it got a little cheaper to live in Douglas County during the Great Recession, that wasn’t very fun for those of us who rely on the economy here for a living.

Deputies, teachers, and maybe especially trash collectors, are important to our community’s function. Failure to recognize that before it makes an even bigger dent, will make it harder and more expensive to fix.