County leaders propose salary increases - again

EDINBURG - The Hidalgo County Commissioner's Court is starting to figure out how much its elected officials and employees will get paid next year.

So far, the county seems to lean toward a 5 percent cost-of-living increase across the board for its 40 elected officials and roughly 2,800 employees. The increase would cost the county slightly more than $4.2 million and does not include annual merit raises.

The adjustment would increase Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas's annual salary from $109,200 to $114,660. The five-member county commissioner court would receive $98,280, up from their current $93,600 salaries. The annual $8,000 vehicle allowances do not change.

The court is also considering raising the county's tax assessor-collector, district clerk and treasurer to a more equal salary of the county clerk. Last year, Hidalgo County Clerk Arturo Guajardo made $83,200, while the remaining salaries were set more than $6,000 below him. If approved, all of them would make $87,360 next year.

All of the county's justices of the peace would have the same salary, $68,190. Now, three of the justices make about $4,000 less than that, and the other six make about $10,000 less.

And the six county judges may stand to see the largest increase by slightly more than $17,000 annually. Precinct 1 Hidalgo County Commissioner Sylvia Handy asked that the county not only give the judges a 5 percent cost of living adjustment, but also an additional $10,000 as the judges had requested because they are the ones that assess penalties that ultimately go toward the county's road and bridge funds.

County budget officials also analyzed the top 12 most populated counties in Texas to see where Hidalgo elected officials' salaries fell in comparison to other counties. Hidalgo County is the eighth largest county out of the state's 254 counties.

The salary analysis shows that elected officials' salaries for the top 12 counties are sporadic. Some positions in Hidalgo County make more than those same positions in counties with more people, and vice versa, some positions in Hidalgo County are making less than those same positions in counties with smaller populations.

The Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño's $130,000 annual salary is more than sheriffs in Travis and Bexar counties. The former has almost 1 million residents, and the latter has almost 1.6 million.

Salinas is making about $4,000 more than the Travis County judge, which oversees Austin, but $21,000 less than the judge in Montgomery county, which has half the population as Hidalgo.

Hidalgo County Commissioners are making more than $37,000 more than El Paso's county commissioners - which has roughly the same population. But across the board, El Paso's county officials ranked almost dead last in the salary analysis. Commissioners in Fort Bend and Montgomery counties, with smaller populations, are making more than the local leaders.

    The commissioner's court has not made any final budget decisions and is expected to have more public workshops on the salary adjustments. The court is slated to adopt the official budget by the end of September.