AUBURN — More than two dozen Androscoggin County workers may be working harder for a raise next year.

On Wednesday, the county kicked off its annual budget season by collecting spending proposals from each of the eight department heads.

At the direction of County Commissioner Jonathan LaBonte and Chairman Randall Greenwood, the department heads submitted numbers the same as the current budget for every position that is neither elected nor part of a union agreement.

They total 28 in all, said Patricia Fournier, the county clerk.

The reason for the move is a coming policy talk, LaBonte said. He and Greenwood want to re-examine the county’s policies regarding incremental raises and cost-of-living increases.

He believes they may be too generous and too frequent, he said.

Many of the scheduled step increases happen every year, with workers hitting the limit of their pay scale after six years of service, he said.

The Sun Journal asked several affected workers for comment. All declined.

The move has also left Commissioner Elaine Makas with questions about how the decision was made to submit budgets that have no increases from the current year.

“I have no problem with looking at our policy,” she said. “But I don’t remember the request being made to department heads.”

She wants to ensure that workers get everything they were promised when they were hired, she said.

“My concern is that the general government employees are hard workers,” she said. “Promises should be kept.”

It’s the same position she has taken throughout a discussion last spring, when commissioners talked about ending the lifetime heath care benefit for former elected officials. Though the benefit was no longer offered after 2004, several former officials who had fulfilled the requirement before that date now receive their health care from the county. The issue remains unresolved.

“I don’t want to surprise anybody,” Makas said.

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