MEASURE REVAMPS SALARY PANELS

JEFFERSON CITY -- Hoping to simplify the complex county salary-setting process, state Rep. Joe Heckemeyer of Sikeston proposed a bill that would mean fewer meetings and less burden on financially strapped counties.

The bill, HB 1132, recently made it out of committee and will be placed soon on the House calendar for consideration, Heckemeyer said. He doesn't expect a problem with House approval, but there may be problems in the Senate.

Heckemeyer said Sen. Harold Caskey of Butler will try to tack on a bill to allow higher salaries for prosecuting attorneys and sheriffs in his district, a provision he won't oppose.

State laws regarding county officials' salaries are out of date, written when the state legislature passed responsibility for setting the salaries to the counties themselves, Heckemeyer said. All elected county officials except the coroner, public administrator and surveyor are on the salary commission, which must meet every two years.

Heckemeyer's bill would require them only to meet once every four years or as deemed necessary by the salary commission. It also encourages attendance at the meetings, because absent members would be counted as voting with the majority.

The biggest difference between the bill and the old law is a section allowing pay increases to be enacted gradually over a six-year period.

"They could take the raises in little steps, allowing for the shift in money," Heckemeyer said.

The Cape Girardeau County salary commission already decided to grant gradual raises, saying the idea didn't violate the existing county salary law. The commission tied officials' raises to county employees' raises. Each Jan. 1, officials will get the same percentage of increase as the one given employees.

Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones said Cape County's salary decision complies with the state law that says county officials can't vote themselves raises while in office. He said Heckemeyer's proposal for gradual increases may help struggling counties.

"In some of these smaller counties that don't have much money, they're on the all-or-none principal," Jones said. "Most of the officials are getting none."

He said Cape County's salary commission would continue to meet once a year, even if there isn't any pressing business.

Scott County Presiding Commissioner Bob Kielhofner said officials in his county would welcome a law that let them meet less often because there usually isn't much to discuss.

The idea of more money for the prosecuting attorney in Scott County -- a provision Caskey may try to tack on the bill -- appealed to Kielhofner.

"There are lots of third-class counties with half our population, but their prosecuting attorneys have the same salary schedule as ours," he said. "We have a hard time keeping prosecuting attorneys in office."