Michigan’s Bay County Facing Layoffs

Bay County, Michigan may be looking to layoffs to relieve a $1.3 million budget gap. County officials are saying that the county’s largest departments will likely have to make layoffs amongst other cuts in order to close the gap.

Tom Hickner, the County Executive, told The Bay City Times that the county would not be able to “balance the budget by cutting supplies only.”

Bay County employs 525 people and has a general fund budget of $33.5 million. The county’s police department, courts department, and administration department have all been asked to cut back their budgets by 2 percent for the ’11 and ’12 budgets.

Additionally, the county has implemented wage freezes, which will maintain for the next two years. Department officials have been given through the remainder of October to decide upon the cuts.