Several Mercer County courthouse department heads converged on the commissioners meeting Thursday seeking answers to questions posed by an unsigned flier that was circulated through the courthouse on Wednesday.

The flier asserted that county commissioners were planning to propose a 2004 budget that provided for 27 pay periods for the county's 150 union or hourly employees and only 26 for the 225 nonunion or salaried employees.

If adopted with the final budget next month, an extra pay for the salaried employees, or professional and administrative staff, would cost the county about $100,000 more than what those same employees are scheduled to earn. And based on a projected $600,000 general fund shortfall that was introduced with the proposed 2004 budget Thursday, that $100,000 could prove significant.

A normal work year has 52 weeks or 26 pay periods, but 2004 will have 53, county fiscal administrator Tresa Templeton explained, thus necessitating the 27th pay.

"So for budgeting purposes for the unions that get paid hourly, I included an additional week," Mrs. Templeton said. "For the P and A employees, it's an annual salary and the commissioners had to make a decision if they were going to recognize that additional week or if they were just going to hold the line that a salary is a salary no matter what you worked."