State and County officials get pay raise

Congratulations to St Johns County elected politicians — the official 2013 county population estimate used to compute the 2014-15 salaries is 201,541.  By exceeding the arbitrary 200,000 headcount, you managed to squeak yourselves out a pay raise.

Despite what was said by at least one incumbent on the campaign trail, the practice of determining the compensation of Florida’s county constitutional officers by state law, using an antiquated compensation formula that dates back to 1973, was updated in 2009.  The Legislature authorized district school board members and elected school superintendents to reduce their salaries on a voluntary basis.  Then again, in 2011, the Legislature authorized county commissioners, clerks of circuit court, county comptrollers, sheriffs, supervisors of elections, property appraisers, and tax collectors to voluntarily reduce their salaries.

During the final budget hearings, don’t let these officials tell you that their hands are tied and they have to accept these statutorily inflated pay checks.

An item the legislature missed in enacting the law is that they required the applicable salaries to be adjusted annually — but they failed to specify the effective date of the annual changes.  Florida’s county governments operate on the October 1st to September 30th local fiscal year, while Florida’s school districts operate on the July 1st to June 30th state fiscal year.  The result is that salary increases are effective October 1st for the elected county officers, and July 1st for the elected school district officials.

As of July 1st our elected state officials earn:

As of October 1st, our elected county officials earn: