County raises

In Missouri counties, state law controls how salaries are adjusted for elected officials. Salaries in counties like Cape Girardeau County are set through the annual budgeting process, but increases for elected officials must be recommended by the County Salary Commission made up of those same elected officeholders. The salary commission determines pay levels that take effect after the next election. And, in the case of Cape Girardeau County, officeholders don't get raises unless other employees get raises.

All of this amounts to a process, one mandated by law. When the salary commission met last month, it authorized pay increases of up to 3.5 percent to take effect in 2011. The raises remain subject to the budget process. If there are no raises for county employees, there wouldn't be raises for elected officials, whose pay could go from the high $60,000s to the low $70,000s.

While all of this follows proper procedure to a T, voting to give yourself a raise -- many of the salary commission members hope to be re-elected -- when county revenue is down and the national economy is still in a tailspin just doesn't look right to a lot of taxpayers who aren't getting pay raises, are taking pay cuts and are being laid off.