PROVO — Claiming an inability to cover overtime costs and expenses in the current budget, Utah County has canceled its employees' traditional half-day paid vacation bonus.

The decision was made because the county is currently about $312,000 in the red in its overtime budget, and allowing workers to take additional time off would add to that deficit, officials said.

"If you grant a half-day, then someone has to cover it, in most of those jobs," said Commissioner Jerry Grover.

Commissioner Steve White estimated that allowing the half-day bonus would cause the county to incur about $91,000 in additional overtime costs.

Sheriff's Sgt. George Alexanderson said that most county positions would not need others to fill in for them for a half-day break.

"It's really no money out of their pocket," Alexanderson said. "It's just another slap in the face to employees who go out of their way to make Utah County a good place to live."

He said that the extra time off, usually made available between Thanksgiving and the end of the year, has been awarded for at least two decades.

Commissioners budgeted $1.3 million for overtime for all county employees in 2005. To date, the amount spent is a little more than $1.6 million.

Grover said the overbudget overtime costs this year were caused by employees being gone for training and vacancies in some areas, particularly jail positions.

The 2006 budget adopted Tuesday allocates $1.6 million for overtime, and the plan is not to exceed that amount: "This year we hope was an anomaly in management," Grover said.

Sheriff Jim Tracy said overtime was sharply reduced from 2004 to 2005 and requests to add personnel this year were turned down.