Furlough days without pay for 750 non-Public Safety Camden County employees begin on Friday, March 4 and continue every other Friday during the course of the year for a projected 22 furlough days and a total savings to taxpayers of $3 million. These furloughs are in addition to almost 300 projected layoffs. Both measures are designed to help bridge the $43 million budget gap the County is facing this year.
“We continue to pursue all options as we work through these tough economic times,” Camden County Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli, Jr. said. “We need to balance the budget, protect our taxpayers and come up with the best solutions for our employees. “While our plan demands great sacrifice from our workforce and from elected officials, who will also lose pay, we believe that the course we are pursuing is the fairest solution to the budget crisis even as we continue to explore any options that could make the choices less difficult.”
Public Safety employees are not affected by the furloughs. All affected Camden County offices will be closed every other Friday from March 4 through December 23.
“We will continue to look at best practices and consolidation in order to cut the cost of government, as we have promised to do in our Transformation Initiative and other programs,” said Freeholder Cappelli.
“In each of the years from 2006–2009, we cut the amount of money taxpayers pay for County government. Since 2004, we have downsized the workforce by more than 600 employees without impacting services to residents,” he said.
“But, with all of that, 2010 and 2011 have still been very tough years, as revenues from taxes and fees have declined, along with state aid, while expenses, such as medical and pension benefits, have increased,” he said. “In the absence of all the tools in the toolkit promised by the state, county and local governments must make the best decisions they can to continue to provide services to residents without over-burdening them with taxes.”
