The Greene County Supervisors recently approved the 2020 fiscal year budget and along with that the salary raises for elected county officials.

The Supervisors voted 3 to 1 in favor of the recommendations from the Compensation Board to give each elected official a specific percentage increase instead of a historically across-the-board percentage increase for all positions. Board Chair John Muir says the intention of the Compensation Board was to get all elected positions to as close to the state average as possible. He points out as a Board, they could only lower the amounts given by the Compensation Board, but even then their hands were tied.

“We didn’t feel like if we dropped it by 50-percent to lower some of the ones that were higher, I’m not going to say undeserving but they were higher, then we would lower the lower ones by that 50-percent. We just decided it might not be a bad time (to do the increase now), and in this plan, it brought people back up in comparison to the rest of the state they possibly should be.”

The percentages included: Auditor at 8.62-percent, Attorney at 7.34-percent, Recorder at 6.15-percent, Sheriff at 4-percent, Supervisors at 3.60-percent and Treasurer at 2.96-percent. In past years, the Supervisors have also declined to take a pay raise, but this year they decided to accept one. Muir explains the reasons why the Board voted in favor of taking a raise.

“It’s been kind of a rough year and we felt like a raise after a couple of years of not taking one was probably in line. Also you don’t want to lose sight of you want this position to be attractive enough for the time spent and the effort put forward, you have good people who think it’s worth their time, in the form of compensation, to be involved in it in the future.”

A list of the salaries, both current and the start of the next fiscal year, along with the percentages can be found below. The changes in salaries take effect July 1st.

Auditor: $ 57,981 (current salary)  8.62% (percent change)  $ 62,981 (new salary)

County Attorney: $ 92,659 (current salary)  7.34% (percent change) $ 99,459 (new salary)

Recorder: $ 56,915 (current salary)  6.15% (percent change) $ 60,415 (new salary)

Sheriff $ 74,913 (current salary) 4.00% (percent change) $ 77,913 (new salary)

Supervisors $ 27,803 (current salary) 3.60% (percent change) $ 28,803 (new salary)

Treasurer $ 57,457 (current salary) 2.96% (percent change) $ 59,157 (new salary)