News

County employees to get year-end bonus

By Lightning Reports, Published: January 3, 2020

Henderson County employees will see a bonus in their paychecks if the county commissioners as expected approve the year-end reward on Monday.

The bonus of $150 each, which was initiated by County Commission Chairman Grady Hawkins, is separate from an annual cost of living increase county employees received after July 1 and separate from merit-based performance bonuses.

"I was approached by the chairman to see if this was something that was doable," County Manager Steve Wyatt said. "I said, it is doable if that's the board's desire. He had talked to each one of them and, to quote him, each one was enthusiastically in support of it."

The commissioners are expected to ratify the action when they approve consent agenda items on Monday night. "It doesn't require a budget amendment," Wyatt said. "Basically, we were able to do it within each department's budget."

The county can afford the bonus, which will cost $160,530 and go to 925 employees, in part because it ended the 2019 fiscal year with a general fund surplus. In the fiscal year ending last June 30, the county added $2.13 million to the general fund balance, raising the total to $28 million. After hearing the results of the 2018-19 audit on Nov. 20, commissioners praised the county tax office for bringing in more revenue than projected and thanked county department heads for spending less than budgeted.

"It's a reward basically for the employees doing a good job financially," Wyatt said.