EAST NAPLES, Fla. - At a time when budget cuts and lay-offs are on many people's minds, some will see raises.

Seventeen employees at East Naples Fire will see their salaries jump by 12 percent.

"I'm really happy for them. This day and age, we can all use a little help with the economy, the way its going," Lt. Harry Zafiris says.

In East Naples, assessed property values dropped a half billion dollars in just one year, still, they're under budget.

"We renegotiated a health insurance plan, that we expect to cut annually about $1.2 million out of our budget. We restructured a pension plan. That should cut about $2 million annually out of our budget," Chief Doug Dyer says.

That adds up to an extra $3.2 million a year.

The raises will go to non-union employees. The 17 people work as secretaries, mechanics, maintenance workers, and administrators.

They'll each get six percent raises for the current fiscal year, which will cost the district $70,000, and another six percent for next year, which is about $74,000.

"They're for our folks that generally lagged behind," Chief Dyer says. "They haven't received a raise since 2007, so its been about two years ago, so I felt it was the time to recommend it to the board, that we give them a salary increase."

Dyer says hard work on the pension and insurance changes this year helped, but conservative budgeting for decades also played a role. East Naples has kept the same maximum tax rate since 1980.

"We've managed, for almost 30 years, to operate within our budget and take care of our business and meet the needs of the community," he says.

Firefighters are union employees. They were not included in these raises because their contract negotiations took place last spring. Chief Dyer says they received three percent raises at that time.