Smith commissioners discuss pay, pay hikes during budget meeting

During their first budget workshop on the FY 2025 county budget on July 30, Smith County Commissioners tackled the question of employee raises and pay hikes in other areas.
This workshop and others will be held leading up to the vote on the budget in September.
Smith County Auditor Ann Wilson presented figures to the commissioners detailing how cost of living raises would affect the budget as well as the property tax bill for county taxpayers.
In her presentation, Wilson said a 3 percent COLA increase would result in $1.7 million added to the budget, 2.5 percent increase would add $1.5 million and a 2 percent hike would add $1.2 million.
“I always want to help our employees when any way we can, that’s always been my focus and I want to take care of who we’ve got,’’ Smith County Judge Neal Franklin said. “There are multiple avenues where we can potentially cut back and maybe look at other avenues.’’
“We have to take care of our fellow employees,’’ said Precinct 2 Commissioner John Moore. “There are other entities that would steal who we have. If we have to cut in some other area then let’s do that. We need to put our employees first. People are going to go where the money is. To me that’s pretty simple.’’
When discussing a requested pay increase for contracted, court-appointed attorneys, Precinct 1 Commissioner Pam Frederick suggested a middle-of-the-road solution.
“The indigent attorneys (request) is biggest lump sum we are looking at so is there a compromise we can agree on?’’ Frederick asked.
The latest budget has a proposed increase for the attorneys’ salaries from $95,000 to $115,000 and an addition of three more attorneys which would add approximately $825,000 to the budget.
Franklin said the reason the indigent attorneys’ requested the raise was because neighboring counties were offering more money.
“The frustrating thing to me is we are sending chunks of money to support people who have done bad things than support people who have done good things,’’ Moore said. “It’s just topsy-turvy.’’
During the same July 30 meeting, Commissioners approved $146,701,237 as the final maximum price for phases two and three of the Smith County Courthouse project.
The total cost of the new courthouse project, including the new parking garage, is $163,600,257.
These final phases are to include the construction of the new courthouse and the demolition of the current one. Demolition of the block on North Spring Avenue was scheduled to begin Aug. 5.