A report prepared for the Montgomery County Council shows that salaries for county workers have grown 50 percent over the past decade, with some employees seeing a salary increase of 80 percent.
Council president Nancy Floreen called for the report, saying council members must begin to get a grasp on the underlying causes of budget shortfalls. While she said it's too early to tell whether layoffs will fix the problem, Floreen does say measures such as furloughs that were used to balance this year's budget won't work anymore.
"You can't run a government based on regular furloughs. It's basically a wage decrease for a year or so. It does not address some of the fundamental issues," she said.
The report also shows the county spends more on employee benefit packages than it does on actual salaries.
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