Jefferson County Commissioners Set Salaries for Elected Officials

By Gordon Hopkins Jefferson County Commissioners held a vote Tuesday, December 30, to set salaries for elected officials. The increases would be effective in 2027 and be for the next four fiscal years.The final vote was to give a five percent raise the first year and four percent each of the following years, except for commissioners.Board of Commissioners Chair Mark Schoenrock said, “Well, I have a thought concerning the commissioners. I think the commissioners’ salary should just stay flat. I think that is a statement for the commissioners recognizing our budget challenge that we've got right now.”Schoenrock said, “Your motivation to do this job as a commissioner should be public service. It should not be for financial remuneration.”The other commissioners agreed. Setting Salaries for Four YearsOver the last few years, Jefferson County, like most other local governments, has been forced to raise salaries for employees. It has put a crunch on budgets but commissioners believe it was necessary to attract and retain staff during a time when the entire country is suffering from an ongoing workforce shortage.Unlike hired employees, state statute requires salaries for officials to be set for four years, which has caused some difficulty recently for budgets and for keeping those salaries commensurate with hired employees due to the volatility of both the economy and job market. Commissioner Michael Dux said, “You know, it's kind of difficult to talk about the next four years when don't know what the cost of living is going to be.”Commissioner Danielle Schwab said, “Well, I'll say that I did give this a lot of thought. It was not easy, as they never are, but I think that we have to, as commissioners, step back from personalities and focus on the structure in the office. Like, we can't look at who's in the office, and then know that that decision goes forward. It's locked for four years. So, it is a little bit different, because we have to look at that. But it's certainly not about personal or who deserves more, because they all deserve more. But it's setting a structure that we can sustain going forward, and unfortunately, we're not in the best financial circumstance.” Consumer Price IndexThere was considerable debate during the meeting and one of the topics discussed was the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The Bureau of Labor Statistics defines CPI as “a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services.” CPI is an indicator of increases to the cost of living and is taken into consideration when setting salaries. For example, on December 18, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced CPI for all items (food, energy, shelter, etc.) roses 2.7 percent over 12 months ending in November.“Just to give the consumer price index some perspective, in the last four years, we had salaries set here. We had a three-and-a-half percent increase per year over that period of time. The Consumer Price Index went up by 19 point something. So, it's around five percent a year,” Jefferson County Attorney Joseph Casson explained. “Whether that's going to continue or not, it's all guesswork.” Case LoadsAlso needing to be taken into consideration when setting salaries are the case loads of officials.Shawna Taylor, Clerk of the District Court in Jefferson County, compared the work load of Jefferson County to other counties.“Thayer County, their case load is 7,907, and this is an average over five years,” said Taylor. “The average case load for Jefferson County is 23,738. Saline County, their case load is 4,106. In Fillmore County, there's their caseload is 9,192.”Taylor did not include the case load of Gage County, “Because I didn't feel it was comparable, because their town is bigger, their population.”Taylor also referred to a comparability study done by the Nebraska Association of County Officials (NACO), “It says a case load for county officials, include attorneys, public defenders and clerk of District Court should be given consideration when establishing salaries.”“I think for let's call them the courthouse offices, like the Clerk, Treasurer, Assessor, Clerk of District Court, I really think that that needs to stay at the same base, because they're all full time, continuously operating statutory offices,” said Schwab. “I do think that our Clerk of the District Court has an unusual caseload. But, again, I'm not sure that that is something that is handled through the base pay. That would be more of a staffing or operations thing, in my opinion, than a base pay thing.” Other CountiesCommissioner Mark Schoenrock said, “So, I would point out that (salaries in) both Saline County and Gage County, they are considerably higher than where we're at right now. Gages County, as of 2026, their elected officials are at $94,004 48. Saline County is at $94,003.50 so both of them are considerably higher than Jefferson. But when I spoke with both of their county chairmen yesterday, they have significant competition with Lancaster County and with the City of Lincoln, so they have to keep it higher salary structure because of that competition.”Schwab pointed out, “They also have higher valuation and lower levy.”Gage County Supervisors set raises for elected officials at a meeting on Wednesday, December 24. The salaries voted on will become effective in 2027 after the upcoming elections, through 2030. Supervisors opted to give the majority a six percent raise in 2028, five percent in 2029 and four percent in 2030. The VoteOver the last several years, Jefferson County, like most other local governments, has been forced to raise salaries in order to attract and retain employees. Finding people willing to run for elected offices, especially in rural areas, is becoming increasingly difficult. For example, Jefferson County Attorney Joseph Casson also serves as county attorney for Thayer County because no other candidates filed for either position. This has created significant strain on local budgets.Dux made a motion to raise salaries by five percent the first year, followed by 3.5 each following year, but that motion died for lack of a second.Schoenrock said, “If we did 5-4-4-4, we end up at $84,360.58. That puts us roughly equivalent to what NACO set for the benchmark.”“I ran the budget margins. You know, total resources over disbursements, which just shows you how risky you can be, the kind of flexibility looking ahead. And our margin is only at three percent, whereas the previous year it was at 20 percent and the year before that, it was at 36.8 percent. So, our margin is closing quickly, and that flexibility and increased risk becomes more riskier,” said Schwab. “Coming up, we've got our regular union negotiations and wages and things like that, but we also got another bond payment coming up, and so I'm just worried about sustainability.”Schwab said, “I'm looking five, 10 years down the road. I would rather we do small, steady steps, then get ahead of ourselves and have to do freezes. And that's reality, I’m afraid.”Dux explained the reason for five percent the first year, rather than four percent for each year, “There is a filing fee (to run for office), and the filing fee is one percent of the salary, and so that's why many of the counties will have an increase the first year is for the filing fee.”Dux made a motion to increase salaries by five percent for the first year and four percent for each following year. Schoenrock seconded. The vote passed. Schwab voted against the motion and Dux said, “You did the same thing on the budget,” referring to the fact that, while she voted against the motion, she did not propose any numbers herself.Schwab said, “I am trying to explain that I don't think we can sustain these numbers. I made that clear. I did a lot of work on it, and I've explained.”FJHN reach out to Commissioner Schwab after the meeting for comment. She did not respond as of press time.

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