When Monroe County legislators meet Tuesday, they’ll vote on whether to give pay raises to themselves, the county executive, the county clerk, and the sheriff.
Republican Majority Leader Steve Brew and Democratic Legislator John Baynes introduced legislation to adopt the recommendations of a Compensation Policy Commission recently convened by legislators with bipartisan support.
“What we need to do is make sure that these very important jobs are compensated appropriately so that individuals will say, ‘I can make that commitment to do that work and be paid enough money to justify the time that's taken away from my family,’” Baynes said.
Brew and Baynes introduced the legislation Wednesday. The measure will bypass review by Legislature committees and instead head directly to a vote by the full body. While legislators could adopt the recommendations as is, they could also reject them outright or amend them.
The commission met throughout May and submitted a report to the Legislature that recommended:
- Increasing the county executive’s pay from $120,000 to $180,000. That’s a 50% raise.
- Increasing the sheriff’s pay from $149,376 to $175,000. That’s a 17% raise.
- Increasing the Monroe County clerk’s pay from $81,000 to $115,000. That’s a 42% raise.
- Increasing the base pay for legislators from $18,000 to $28,500. That’s a 58% raise.
Brew, Baynes, and commission members have repeatedly said that except for the sheriff, county elected officials haven’t had raises for years. The county executive and county clerk salaries have remained unchanged for more than 20 years, and legislators’ salaries haven’t changed in 30 years.
“It was just time,” Brew said.
They’ve also argued that while the proposed raises appear massive, they are reasonable. For example, legislators haven’t had a raise since 1990, so the proposed increase amounts to 1.4% annually over those three decades. The proposed raise for the county executive works out to an increase of 1.9% annually over two decades, and the proposed increase in the clerk’s salary is equal to an annual increase of 1.6% over the same timeframe.
The commission is also recommending raising the stipends for Legislature leadership positions. It recommends bumping most of the stipends up by 25%, though the majority and minority leaders of the Legislature would get a 50% bump, and assistant caucus leaders would see their pay rise 100% — from $1,250 per year to $2,500.
If the Legislature adopts the recommendations, the new salaries would be implemented in the 2024 county budget. In other words, the pay increases wouldn’t take effect until after the November elections, when all 29 Legislature seats are on the ballot.
“Here we are in an election year in the midst of things, and so our intent was to be upfront and no behind-the-scenes finagling with this thing,” Brew said.
