Pay freeze for county elected officials is right decision

At a time when everyone, even public officials, could use an extra few dollars in their pocket — or their savings account — Pettis County’s elected officials made the right choice Monday by voting not to increase their positions’ salaries for the next two years.

The decision affects the people who will hold the offices after the November 2010 elections, but it is fair to say that many of the people who currently inhabit those offices are likely to remain there after the vote.

Sheriff Kevin Bond was elected Salary Commission chairman for the meeting; he told The Democrat’s Matthew Steingraber: “The salary commission also had the ability to set salaries for the 2012 election cycle as well, but that will be taken up in two years at the 2011 salary commission meetings.”

That seems to be the right call as well, since no one can be certain where the economy will be in two years. And for those critics who contend that county officials are paid too much, consider that those positions have not received a pay increase — not even a cost of living allowance — since 2005.

During the salary commission meeting, County Clerk Pam Doane reported that sales tax revenue is down 7 percent from last year. It also was revealed that the county, which has been working to cut its 2009 budget by 10 percent, borrowed $150,000 in the middle of this year to prevent a shortage in the general fund (that debt has been repaid, with interest amounting to $3,000).

Given those financial realities, Presiding Commissioner Rusty Kahrs told Steingraber that the prospect of dealing with salary increases during tight budget times “is one less thing we have to be concerned about. I’m glad they made the decision.”

We are, too.