Pay hikes for county officials proposed

Erin Neff

Thursday, March 1, 2001 | 11:21 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Given a choice, most elected officials would not be politically willing to raise their own salaries.

But if the Legislature does it for elected county officials statewide, the politicians can quietly celebrate a big raise without fearing the decision.

A bill introduced Wednesday would require salary raises for elected officials in all 17 of the state's counties.

Clark County's current salaries, and proposed increase, are the highest statewide, with commissioners set to get a $21,000-a-year raise if the measure is approved.

Assembly Bill 256, which was introduced by the Assembly Committee on Government Affairs, amends the annual salary table already specified in state law.

Currently, Clark County Commissioners earn $54,000 a year for what is technically a part-time job. The bill, developed by the National Association of Counties, proposes increasing that amount to $75,000.

The largest increases would be for district attorney, whose salary would rise from $100,800 to $145,000, and for the sheriff, whose salary would go from $84,000 to $125,000.

The county clerk, assessor, recorder, treasurer and public administrator would each get raises from their current $72,000 salary to $107,610 a year.

The bill also requires an annual salary increase on July 1 of each year after the measure takes effect. The increase would be the lesser of the average percentage of all county employees' raises the previous fiscal year or the percentage by which the average industrial hourly wage in the county increased during the previous fiscal year.

County commissioners could only get around the annual raise by applying for a waiver from the local committee on government finance if the county's financial resources are "insufficient to pay the increase in the next fiscal year."

The bill does not apply to elected city officials.

In Washoe County, commissioner salaries would go from $39,600 to $60,000; the district attorney would go from $96,000 to $128,000 and the sheriff from $78,000 to $103,000.

Doug Bache, D-Las Vegas, said he is not sure how his Committee on Governmental Affairs will view this salary hike. "I think there will be opposition to increasing salaries because legislators haven't had a pay raise since 1987," Bache said.

But since a bill to raise legislators' salaries has already been introduced by Vivian Freeman, D-Reno, Bache said the resistance by state lawmakers to other salary increases may soften.

Calls to Clark County Commission Chairman Dario Herrera were referred to County Manager Dale Askew, who said a request for a smaller hike two years ago was shelved by legislators.

"We were told there would be no raises for governmental positions statewide," Askew said. "We were told to come back again in two more years and try it again."

Clark County's elected officers have not had a pay raise in six years.