The Ketchum City Council has a tin ear when it comes to hearing the sounds of distress in the local economy.
When the national economic crisis hit in the fall of 2008, fully 60 percent of the local economy—jobs centered on design and construction of new homes and businesses—vanished nearly overnight. Two years later, the jobs have not come back.
Tourism and the money it generated also declined because of economic fears and falling family incomes.
Most people working today in the Wood River Valley are grateful just to have a job. They are fearfully aware, however, that should the economy worsen again or fail to grow, more jobs could disappear.
This situation was the backdrop for the council's May announcement that the city would award employees a 2.5 percent "cost-of-living" raise despite the fact that national figures show that there's been no increase in the cost of living for at least a year.
The city justified the raise by citing its 25 percent cut in manpower since 2006 that left remaining employees to do more—the same way cuts in private businesses left remaining workers to do more. Not only that, these workers experienced forced furloughs and wage cuts as well.
It would be one thing if city employees were underpaid, but they're not. When state pension benefits and full family medical benefits are considered, city jobs are some of the best around.
The city is using hotel development fees and revenue from a new property lease to pay for the raises while crying in the same breath about the precipitous slide in receipts from local-option taxes.
This is no time to play Santa Claus. Raises should wait for better times.
