The union's proposition to use the county reserves to pay salary increases (and lock the county into higher fixed personal costs for the future) reminds me of a Far Side cartoon I once saw.  Several dog in a lifeboat and the lead dog announcing, "All in favor of eating all the rations right now, raise your paw!"
It seems like it has taken the county a decade or more to get on a somewhat sustainable fiscal basis after the loss of federal timber funding.  Evidently the union perceives the lack of a financial crisis at budget time as an opportunity to create one for the future.