Commission Divided Over Pay Increase Raises For Kootenai County Officials To Be Voted On Tuesday

Kootenai County commissioners will decide Tuesday whether to give themselves a pay raise in the 1998-99 budget year.

They’ll decide then whether to give raises to the rest of the county’s elected officials as well.

“Every other county has given 3 percent or more to their elected officials,” said Commissioner Dick Compton. “We’re fourth or fifth (in pay rate), and we’re the third-largest (county).”

In order to stay competitive, Compton added, it’s necessary to keep elected officials’ salaries comparable to other counties.

If commissioners do increase pay for themselves and other elected officials, they won’t have to add money to the budget to do so. Money already has been appropriated for 3 percent raises. If commissioners decide not to approve the raise, that money will remain in the county’s general fund.

Commissioners have not received a pay increase since 1993, although the county’s other elected officials have. Last year, all other elected officials received 4 percent raises in a measure supported by Compton and Commissioner Dick Panabaker, but opposed by Commissioner Ron Rankin. Only the sheriff and prosecutor received raises the year before that.

Rankin, who is up for re-election and has built a career fighting tax increases, said he’s wringing his hands over the prospect of raising his own salary. Although he thinks he and the other commissioners have done a “terrific” job and deserve “at least a cost-of-living increase,” giving himself a raise contradicts his platform for office, he said.

“We are not in accord at this point,” Rankin said of himself and the two other commissioners. “I’m having a terrible time rationalizing how I can in good conscience give elected officials a raise in a year we haven’t been able to cut property taxes.”

Commissioners approved the county’s 1998-99 budget Sept. 10. The $39.5 million budget is up 6 percent over last year and, excluding revenue expected from new construction, includes a 3 percent increase in property taxes.

“With that in mind, I’ve been struggling with my conscience now for a couple of weeks,” Rankin said. “We do not have a resolution. I haven’t made up my mind, and they (the other commissioners) have been patient with me. We don’t necessarily agree.”

At about 98,000 people, Kootenai County ranks behind only Ada (267,000) and Canyon (116,000) counties in population, but many of the county’s elected officials make less than their counterparts elsewhere.

Commissioners here earn $40,788 a year. In Bannock County, the state’s fifth-largest at 74,000 people, commissioners earn $41,390, according to the Idaho Association of Counties 1998 salary and wage survey.

The assessor in Ada County makes $12,000 more than the Kootenai County assessor, and the prosecutor in Canyon County earns $8,000 more than Kootenai’s prosecutor.

Examples do exist of Kootenai County officials making more than a counterpart in a larger county. For example, the sheriff here makes $48,360 a year, which is almost $2,000 more than the sheriff in Canyon County.

A 3 percent raise for the rest of the county’s employees already has been budgeted for next year. That money will be disbursed on a merit basis, not across the board.