A4
SEPTEMBEI\
29, 2015
SUNDAY
Nv:ws,
LINC;\STEIl, PA.
I
No choice but to take it raise
• County commissioners' salaries have risen 46 percent.
State law forced them to accept hike this year.
BY GIL SMART
Staff Writer
[email protected]
The Lancaster County Commissioners didn't want a raise
this year.
With times still tough for
many county residents, the commissioners said it was almost
unthinkable that they, and other
county elected officials, should get
a 2.7S percent pay hike. Scott Martin, who chairs the current board,
said that commissioners really
need to set the tone by forgoing
additional money - which, of
course, comes out of the taxpayers' pockets.
'We get it," said Martin.
Ultimately, they did get it - the
raise, that is.
Because, according to state law,
they had no choice but to take it.
Pennsylvania state law prohibits
elected officials from adjusting
their pay while in office. The intent
was to prohibit lawmakers from
hiking their own salaries. But state
courts have ruled, in effect, that
they also can't reduce their own salaries while in office, nor turn down
raises approved years before.
Please see COMMISSIONERS, page A4
o
EXCLUSIVE
How much do
you pay county
workers?
See
LancasterOnline.com
for a database includtnl
tile salanes of all
Lancaster County full-bme employees.
Commissioners: Salary hikes
Continued from A1
As a result, county row officers and the three commissioners all got 2.75 percent
pay hikes each of the past
three years. The increase
pushed base pay for a county
commissioner to $96,25846 percent higher than what
the county commissioners
made in 2000 and one of the
highest salaries for county
commissioners in the region.
Lancaster County Commissioners make more than
state legislators. But they're
out-earned by 14 other county employees -13 of whom
make six figures annually.
County commissioners
already have voted to "zero
out" raises for elected officials in three of the next four
years. And they believe state
laws should be amended to
allow them to take a voluntary pay cut if conditions
demand it.
''1 have friends who
haven't gotten a raise since
the crash," Martin said.
''Even if you're setting (compensation levels) out way in
advance of the next board (of
commissioners), that board
should never be forced to
take a pay raise."
Regional county
commissioner
salaries 2013
LEBANON
$61,188
CHESTER
$80,701
YORK
$82,341
BERKS
LANCASTER
DAUPHIN
$90,261
$96,258
$98,987
NOTE: Figures reflect base salary; board
chairman receives additional compensation
Todd B. Spidle/STAFF
tin, who worked at the Youth
Intervention Center. "I don't
ever remember not getting
a raise of anywhere between
3.5 to 5 percent, depending
on how I did on the performance review."
County commissioners
shared in the largesse.
In 2000, then-commissioners Paul Thibault and
Howard "Pete" Shaub, both
Republicans, and Democrat
Set salaries
Ron Ford earned base salaries of $66,156.
Commissioners are reFor each of the next eight
quired to set salaries for the years. commissioners got
next crop of commissioners
raises between 3.3 and 3.5
and row officers who take
percent annually, meaning
office.
that by 2008 - as the economy began to crater - pay for
The current commiscommissioners had jumped
sioners - Martin, Dennis
Stuckey and Craig Lehman
to $88,734. It went up by
- have been in office since
another 2.75 percent in 2009
to $88,734.
'
2008 and are in the midst of
It was supposed to rise
their second term. In effect
they did set their own raise~ even more, but the commissioners decided enough was
this year, voting in 2010 for
the increases they have
enough. At the time, they
reaped in recent years.
were still allowed to do that.
But, as Martin noted
Pennsylvania's constitu"People say that when you're tion stipulates that no law can
setting the rate for the
be passed to increase or diminish a public officer's salfuture, you're really setting
your own rate. But that's to
ary after his or her election
say I'm going to win the next or appointment. But a state
election, or will run again."
Supreme Court case from
Still,
for
most
of
the
2000s
.
.
' 1880 asserted that a local
rruses were routine - both
ordinance wasn't a law. And
for rank-and-file 'c ounty
while it might be politically
workers and elected officials. toXIC for elected officials to
''1 was a county employee try to increase their salaries
for 20 years before becoming while in office, some sought
to cut their salaries, or at
a.~mmissioner," said Mar-
least reduce the raises they
were slated to receive.
The previous board of
commissioners - Sharron
Nelson, Dick Shellenberger
and Molly Henderson - had
voted to give their successors, and row officers, a 3.5
percent hike in 2009. Martin,
Stuckey and Lehman voted
to cut that to 2.75 percent.
The following year, 2010,
they were supposed to get
a 2.75 percent hike - but,
noting that a pay freeze had
been imposed on county
employees, the commissioners decided to follow suit. All
elected officials had their pay
frozen, too.
But in 2011 they took the
budgeted 2.75 percent hike
because the legal landscape
had changed.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court had issued a
new ruling in a Phoenixville,
Chester County, case, where
borough council had voted to
cut pay. One elected official
sued, saying it was ''bad
government" to let officials
tinker with their pay during their term of office. The
Supreme Court agreed.
That, said commissioner
Lehman, meant elected officials here had no choice but
to take the raises they had
coming.
Now, the commission-
ers annual compensation of
$96,258 - chairman Martin
gets an additional stipend'
his pay is $97,258 - mak~
them the second-highest-paid
county commissioners in the
region.
Dauphin County commissioners get more -$98 987
this year. Dauphin Co~ty's
population is about half that
of Lancaster County.
Berks County commissioners make $90,260 this
year; in York County, the
figure is $80,702; in Chester
County, $80,702; and in Lebanon County, $61,188.
Most row officers here
will make $83,784 this year.
Register of Wills MaryAnn
Gerber makes $85,784.
District Attorney Craig Stedman is the highest-paid row
officer - and the highest{laid county employee - at
$172,271.
Pennsylvania district attorney salaries are set by the
state, not the county in which
they serve.
Yet commissioner pay still
pales ill comparison to what
some county employees,
, mainly department directors,
A history of county commissioner,~!!!!:! ~~
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lEHMAN
THIBAULT
·Sharron Nelson completed remainder of
Pete Shaub's third term in 2007
MARTIN
SnuCKEY
NOTE: Figures reflect base salary; board chairman
receives additional compensation
Todd B. Spidle/STAFF
make.
For the complete list of
what Lancaster County employees earn, visit Lancast-
all sorts of accounting problems, he said.
"It's still reported to the
IRS as if you took the full
erOnline.com.
While county commission- salary," he said. "You're obligated to pay Social Security,
ers can't reduce their own
Medicaid and state taxes
pay while in office, they can
limit pay increases for future on it, as if you got the full
boards. Martin, Stuckey and arnoWlt."
Still, said Barry KauffLehman voted last year to
man,
executive director of
award no pay increase to
Common Cause PA, a govcommissioners or row officers in 2014 or 2015. Elected ernment watchdog group,
"It's the right thing to do.
officials would then get 2
Yes,
there's a bit of complexpercent hike in 2016, but no
ity with returning the money,
increase again in 2017.
but it's not impossible. We've
Many counties are doencouraged lawmakers to
ing the same, said Douglas
do this, to give back to the
Hill, executive director of
treasury."
the County Commissioners
Commissioner Lehman
Association of Pennsylvasaid it would be simplernia. "There are a number
and better - for the Legislaof counties that have done
ture to pass a law permitting
zero-percent raises," he
officials
to cut their compensaid, ''though I can't say it's
a universal trend one way or sation while in office.
"Let's say (elected offithe other."
cials) are scheduled to get a 3
Some counties are going
percent raise> and the county
even further.
finds itself in severe finanIn Northumberland
County, earlier this month
commissioners chose not
just to curtail raises, but to
slash elected officials' pay,
in some cases by up to 48
percent. The changes take
place next year for some
row officers, 2016 for commissioners and other row
officers. Northumberland
County commissioners'
salaries will drop from
$61,000 to $31,500.
Row officers and commissioners also will see big
increases in health care
costs.
There is another way for
elected officials to eschew
previously approved salary
increases: Give them back.
"When you're in office,
you can refuse to take the
raise, you can 'return' it,"
said Hill. But that gets into
cial difficulty for whatever
reason," he said. ''From my
perspective, if I have to address some serious financial
issues, I'm hamstrung by
state law."
Almost as bad, he said,
is the public perception of
public officials taking a raise
in this economy.
"If elected officials," he
said, "get a 3.5 percent raise
while county employees
get zero, it plays into every
negative stereotype about
government."
So, for the next few years,
nothing.
"Zero percent going
forward, that's being as
responsible as you can be as
a public official," he said.
And the days of 3.5
percent increases year over
year are probably gone
forever.
"Salaries for elected officials are going to be lower
than in the past," Lehman
said.