The county compensation board recommend zero pay increases for any elected officials during their June 11 meeting.

County staff reviewed the county financials with the board, which includes the three county commissioners, sheriff, county attorney, treasurer, clerk of court and three resident taxpayers.

Current base salaries are:

• county commission: $78,164.84, plus a $2,000 statutory increase
• clerk of court: and justices of peace $78.164.84, plus a statutory $2,000 increase
• treasurer and clerk and recorder: $78,164.84, plus a statutory $5,032 increase
• sheriff: $97,706.04, plus a statutory increase of $5,032, plus a longevity increase of $6,665.08
• county attorney: $148,872, capped at $159,813

Under state law, deputy sheriff pay is tied to the sheriffs salary and they receive a percentage of his salary.

The county attorney’s salary is capped at the salary of a district court judge, which is currently $159,813, according to the county human resources department.

Jeff Mora, county HR director, said that insurance premiums were increasing 9.7 percent for the budget year that starts July 1.

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The county currently has 353 employees on the county’s insurance plan and that increase is an estimated $355,824 additional cost, for a total employee insurance cost to the county of $4,358,844.

The county 12 collective bargaining agreements with 16 different groups. Eight of those are open for negotiation this year.

Historically, Mora said, the county has given a cost of living adjustment for nonunion employees.

This year, the cost of living, as set by the Montana Association of Counties, is 2.9 percent.

Mora said that adjustment, if approved by commissioners in the budget, would be an additional $276,188.

He said that wages are a significant factor in recruitment and retention but that the county budget is limited.

Trista Besich, county finance director, said that year to date, the county had $83,098,470 in total budgeted revenues.

Expenses were $110,414,147, if which about $12 million was ARPA, or federal COVID relief, funds.

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As of June 9, the county had collected $67,987,162 in revenues.

For the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1, Besich said that departments were asked to hold their budgets flat and work toward balanced budgets.

With inflating operating costs, Besich said several county departments are cutting positions or not filling vacancies.

She said 19 positions, or 14.75 full-time employees have been impacted.

Local governments, such as the county and city, are limited by state law in how much they can raise property taxes.

Annually, they’re limited to half the average rate of inflation for the last three years, which this year is 2.11 percent.

In the county general fund, that inflationary factor equates to an estimated $517,443.49.

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It’s an additional $50,922.09 for the road fund and $32,775.43 in the rural fund.

That’s an estimated $601,141 in additional tax revenue through the inflationary factor.

The county can also use the permissive medical levy to offset employee health insurance costs. The maximum the county can increase that is $251,700 for the upcoming budget year.

Besich said the county projects that it will collect about $260,000 from marijuana taxes, up from $45,000 a few years ago.

Besich said several federal grants have been significantly reduced or cut entirely so far and it’s a “volatile” situation.

She said within the county’s public safety levy, the county was exhausting available funding in two categories and was expecting the other funds to be used up with salaries in the near future.

Commissioner Joe Briggs said the county has set a reserve within the levy funds and built in salary increases, but that’s not sustainable unless the levy  grows over time to keep up with inflation.

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“Increases in the wages are outpacing the growth of that levy,” Brigg said and they’ll start burning those reserves soon with continued salary increases within public safety.

Briggs said that when the public safety levy was proposed to voters, it was broken into components for pre-trial, school safety, county attorney salaries and sheriff deputy salaries.

Those percentages aren’t legally binding, but the county has followed them, Briggs said.

Sheriff Jesse Slaughter said the county was honoring those percentages  “so we keep our promise to the community of what we asked for.”

Briggs said there are also legislative changes, some to be implemented this year, some next year, that will likely impact the county budget, to include a change on how the public safety levy is calculated.

Briggs said the governor hasn’t signed a portion of the legislation yet and there’s an effort to encourage him to veto that portion.

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He said he expects some litigation related to those aspects of recent legislation so there’s “still some uncertainty.”

Some of the federal changes have also paused county construction projects, including the new gymnasium at the Juvenile Detention Center.

The county has a $3 million contract with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to hold their juveniles in the county’s JDC and the new contract hasn’t yet been signed, so Briggs said the county put a temporary hold on the project, which would next go to bid.

Briggs said that in some budget years, the compensation board had approved increases below the COLA levels and some years they’d done more to catch up.

He said pay is a part of recruitment and retention.

Heikkila said she’d advertised a clerk position in her office several times and had no applicants. She said three employees in her officer are working two jobs.

Tina Henry, clerk of court, said people in her office were actively looking for other jobs because they can’t pay their bills.

Briggs said it helps in union negotiations if the county is conservative in pay increases for elected officials and nonunion employees.

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Commissioner Eric Hinebauch said it was important to give increases to nonunion employees.

Hinebauch said he didn’t feel commissioners should be taking increases while the county is cutting positions, but the nonunion workforce needs to keep up with rising costs.

Briggs said he couldn’t think of a time when the county hadn’t given nonunion employees a cost of living adjustment, but they hadn’t given increases to elected officials in the past.

Heikkila said she has nonunion supervisors in her officer making pennies or a dollar above their union employees.

Slaughter said he’s one of the highest paid sheriff’s in the state and with the public safety funds, deputy salaries were now competitive in the state.

Commissioners, Briggs said, were paid $25,000 to $40,000 behind the other big counties.

Briggs said the county had worked for years to avoid layoffs but since layoffs were happening this year, he didn’t support pay increases for elected officials.

“It’s a place where we can have an impact that will improve the fiscal status of the county,” with limited impact on the people, Briggs said. “I can’t support doing anything for elected officials this year.”

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Neal Dubois, a citizen taxpayer member of the board and a local lawyer, said he didn’t consider a cost of living adjustment as a raise, but the county budget numbers were challenging.

“We’re in a tough spot,” Dubois said. “The numbers are what they are.”

Margaret Mitchell, a citizen taxpayer and board chair, moved for zero increases for elected officials.

The majority approved the motion. Henry and Heikkila opposed.

Mitchell moves for zero additional increases for the sheriff, which Briggs seconded.

Dubois was opposed, but the rest of the board voted in favor.

Cascade County Attorney Josh Racki said in looking at his department’s budget and available levy funding, he was asking for a $5,160 increase for his position.

The remaining levy funds could be split amongst the other 17 deputy county attorneys who were currently in union negotiations.

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Briggs said it was improper to discuss union negotiations in the compensation board meeting and deputy county attorney salaries weren’t tied to the county attorney’s salary in the way deputy sheriffs are tied to the sheriff.

Racki was capped last year since his salary can’t exceed that of a district court judge and didn’t receive an increase when other elected officials did.

Mitchell moved for a zero increase for the county attorney and Briggs seconded.

Slaughter said Racki should get a raise since “we demand a lot” of the county attorney.

“He’s always there,” Slaughter said of Racki.

Mitchell said she understood that, but the county needed to mitigate budget risk this year.

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Hinebauch said he didn’t agree with the motion and thought it was fair to catch Racki up from the last few years.

Dubois said that the funding was available in the public safety funds and that in the private sector, Racki would be making significantly more.

Briggs said that since the board voted not to increase the compensation of the other elected officials, they couldn’t increase the county attorney’s salary.

Dubois, a board member and local attorney, said he interpreted the law differently and the board could consider the county attorney’s salary separately.

In the board vote, Briggs and Commissioner Jim Larson voted in favor of the zero increase, Hinebauch in opposition.

Briggs said since the law requires a majority, which must include a majority of commissioners, that motion passed.

Dubois said he didn’t read the law that way and they had four in favor, six opposed, so the motion failed.

Dubois moved to increase the county attorney’s salary by $2,500, less than half of what Racki had requested.

Hinebauch seconded the motion, which was supported by the board other than Briggs, Larson and Mitchell.

Since two commissioners were opposed, the motion failed, meaning the board didn’t recommend a raise for the county attorney and there were no additional motions.