County wants to cut? Start at the top

Contributed
Published: July 3, 2008

To the editor,
We all know when there are budget cuts in a corporation, the staff gets hit hard while the CEOs get off easy. Well, the county is no different. For example, the county’s budget cuts affecting the child care part of parks and rec. hit some employees hard. Full-time positions have been reduced to part-time with no benefits while the site directors’ salaries or benefits were not touched. The average site director salary is over $68,000 per year plus benefits. And who does all the work? The part-time staff. I spoke to a young lady at the site where my niece goes; while in tears she told me her position goes part-time on June 30. She is a single parent and soon to be without health insurance. I bet Mr. Rolfe didn’t take a pay cut to help with the county budget. Maybe the board of supervisors should cut Mr. Rolfe’s pay and make his job part-time, see how he likes it.
Here is a way the county could raise a substantial amount of revenue. There are thousands of companies that do business with Orange County. Force these companies to obtain a business license to conduct business here. Every other county does. Just think while the housing boom was happening and the thousands of contractors from outside the county were coming here and working for free. This won’t solve the problem but it sure can’t hurt it.
Lynn Trupp