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GREENSBORO — The county’s Register of Deeds office is furloughing its 27 employees, giving workers two unpaid days off to try to make up for revenue shortfalls.

The department is one of the county’s most efficient and profitable — it’s projected to take in about $3.5 million this year with its $1.7 million operating budget.

But Jeff Thigpen, the county’s Register of Deeds, said even his department isn’t immune to a down economy.

“The fact is people aren’t buying $400,000 houses anymore,” Thigpen said. “They’re buying $150,000 houses — in that range.”

And other county departments could follow suit.

“Furloughs are better than unemployment,” said Commissioner Billy Yow. “It’s probably not a popular thing to do, but it would be even less popular if we had to lay people off.”

Thigpen’s office makes most of its money by taking a percentage of such sales through excise tax stamps. With less money coming in this year — between $400,000 and $500,000 less than projected — county leaders began to ask whether the office needed the number of people it has working the same number of hours.

“We had less revenue coming into the county through our office and the work that we did began to reduce itself,” Thigpen said. “It was a combination of those two things.”

Thigpen’s office is pretty bare bones already. Several years ago, he went to county leaders to propose his staff cross-train duties, becoming less specialized. It cost the county about $30,000, Thigpen said — and saved around $360,000 when the office was able to operate with fewer staffers doing more work.

Thigpen said his office is now one of the most efficient in the state, but it would be hard to trim it further. In a tough budget year, that leaves his office few options.

The two-day furlough is expect to save about $14,000, Thigpen said. Furloughs will be staggered so the office doesn’t have to be closed.

“We’re drilling down to this place where we’re about to hit the bone,” Thigpen said. “I’m being very careful about what I do at that place. That makes furlough an option now, but it makes giving up staff members increasingly more difficult.”

Thigpen, a county commissioner until his election as register in 2004, will take the furlough days as well. It’s not pleasant, Thigpen said, but it’s better than layoffs. It’s also one way departments can pitch in to help commissioners out of a tough spot.

“I would suspect the commissioners are going to have some very difficult decisions if they want to pass a budget without a tax increase,” Thigpen said.

Last year, 73 county employees were laid off and nearly 200 were offered early retirement. Thigpen’s department took a 19 percent budget cut, the second highest of any county department. The department lost six positions, Thigpen said, only one of which was empty at the time.

“This year, it’s just as difficult a year as last year, but we don’t have the latitude to cut as deeply.”

Commissioners don’t need to vote on furloughs or layoffs; both are something County Manager Brenda Jones Fox can enact herself. But commissioners are watching with interest.

Yow said he thinks other departments will follow the Register of Deeds’ example, enacting furloughs to stave off layoffs. As bad as the economy is, Yow said layoffs aren’t impossible either.

“There’s a good chance we could see that too, with the way things are shaking out,” Yow said. “The board is really getting in tune now with the fact that we’re going to have to make some hard cuts or we’re going to have to raise taxes. Nobody wants to raise taxes.”

Commissioner Kirk Perkins said furloughs are a good temporary solution, but they won’t solve the problem of mounting bond debt that has to get factored into the budget.

In 2008, county voters passed bond referendum items worth $651.1 million. The county is now issuing a historic level of debt to pay for new schools, a jail in downtown Greensboro, expansion at GTCC and other projects.

This year, the county is expected to owe $1.1 billion in bond debt. The county will need to find $24.3 million to service that debt.

“We may have to end up cutting some people back,” Perkins said. “With some of the bond issues coming on, we either have the revenue or we have to cut services.”

Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian @news-record.com