BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At a May 19 Special Budget Meeting, the Alachua County Commission heard budget requests from the County’s Judicial and Constitutional Offices.
Except for the Sheriff’s Office, all of the requests included 3% cost-of-living and up to 2% merit increases for employees, along with corresponding increases in benefits and insurance costs; although these are budget increases, they are not considered to be new requests for funding. The Sheriff’s Office has a bargaining agreement with most employees, so raises and benefits are determined by those agreements…