PORT ST. LUCIE — Layoffs are hitting city employees because of the suffering construction industry and housing bust of the current economy

Last week, 15 utilities department employees were laid off and six new employees still in their probationary period were terminated. Eleven others were reassigned within the department. Officials said the cuts were because of lack of work for utility hookups in new homes and not the anticipated $10 million shortfall in next year’s budget.

The positions were needed during the housing boom a few years ago. City Manager Don Cooper denied a utilities department request to hire even more people then because city officials said the boom would eventually slow and potentially cause layoffs.
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The Treasure Coast court system has 42 judges, prosecutors, investigators, public defenders and administrators who are paid more than $100,000 per year.

Circuit judges, who preside over major criminal and civil cases, are paid $145,080 per year under a state salary scale that went into effect Oct. 1, 2006. That makes Florida’s circuit judges the 11th highest paid trial judges in the nation, according to a 2008 survey by the National Center for State Courts.

But the pay of Florida’s circuit judges would slide down to 17th place nationwide if the state government enacts a Senate bill calling for all state employees earning more than $100,000 per year to take a 5 percent pay cut. (more…)