Missouri Senate endorses higher fees to increase deputies' salaries

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Turning aside some budgetary concerns, senators endorsed legislation Thursday to boost the salaries of sheriffs' deputies by raising fees for many legal actions.

Sheriffs' offices would charge an extra $10 every time they serve a summons, subpoena or court order for civil lawsuits, under the legislation. That money would be used by a state board to help raise the salaries of deputies in low-paying counties.

The average salary for a deputy in Missouri is $22,262 annually, according to the Missouri Deputy Sheriffs' Association, an amount less than what it takes to qualify for food stamps and barely above the federal poverty level for a family of four.

Deputies in 91 of Missouri's 114 counties receive starting salaries so low that they are eligible for some sort of public aid, the Missouri Sheriffs' Association said.

The legislature creates new crimes each year, yet "the people who are out there enforcing the laws we make a very, very substandard pay," said Sen. John Griesheimer, R-Washington, the bill's sponsor and chairman of a special Senate committee that studied funding for sheriffs' offices.

The Senate gave first-round approval to the legislation 24-2 with eight senators not voting. Several senators who spoke against the plan left the chamber before the vote. The bill needs a second Senate vote to move to the House.

Sheriffs' departments already charge $10 for each subpoena they serve for lawsuits and $20 for other civil legal services, such as summons.

The new fee is expected to generate between $4 million and $6 million annually, said the Missouri Sheriffs' Association. The money would be distributed to counties by the Missouri Sheriff Methamphetamine Relief Taskforce, an existing five-member board of sheriffs appointed by the governor that oversees anti-methamphetamine funding.