County commissioners OK cost of living pay increases

The Lincoln County Commissioners unanimously approved a 1.5% cost of living increase for its non-elected employees at last week’s April 3 meeting.

The pay increase will take effect on July 1, 2024. It’s a $46,000 increase in the budget, according to county officials. The county will pay $3,146,650 in salaries for the fiscal year 2025.

Commissioners Jim Hammons and Josh Letcher both mentioned the decrease in county employees over the last several years. 

Currently, the county employs 133 full-time workers, 13 part-time, two seasonal and six temporary. There are 11 elected officials.

Letcher said in 1998 the county mailed out 332 W-2 forms and this year it was 198.

Human Resources Director Dallas Bowe said the number doesn’t accurately reflect the number of employees because election judges are part of the total.

But the numbers do reflect the reduction in staff over the last quarter century, despite the growth of the county in population to about 22,000 people.

Revenues in the county have plummeted over the last few decades, largely due to a drastic reduction in timber receipts from harvests on U.S. Forest Service lands. 

A little more than a month ago, the commissioners OK’d a 1.5% cost of living increase for its elected officials. Those pay hikes will also take effect in the new fiscal year on July 1.

Sheriff Darren Short and commissioners Letcher, Brent Teske and Hammons will make $65,166.43. 

Hammons and Administrative Assistant Jennifer Brown each handle responsibilities that Hammons handled on his own as the county administrator before his election to the District 2 commissioner seat.

Making $63,166.43 will be Clerk and Recorder Corinna Brown, Clerk of Court Tricia Brooks, Treasurer Sedaris Carlberg and Superintendent of Schools Suzie Rios.

County Attorney Marcia Boris’ salary is $63,166.43, not including the share the state kicks in.

County Coroner Steve Schnackenburg will make $18,949.93 and the Deputy County Coroner Jay Moody will make $5,684.98.

County officials have defended the cost of living increases over the last four of five years as a way of keeping pay competitive in an attempt to avoid drastic staff turnover.

According to the Montana Association of Counties, the inflation factor for FY 2024 is 2.46% 

The county did report an increase of $247,000 in levied taxes from a year ago. 

The county received a total of $12 million in federal money from the Local Consistency and Tribal Fund in fiscal years 2022 and 2023. Some of the money from it was used to help balance this year’s budget. Hammons said the hope for the rest of the money is to invest it.

Hammons also mentioned that Lincoln County is the only county in the state that doesn’t have a road tax.

Commissioners are hopeful that a veto override on marijuana tax legislation could inject $368,000 into the road department budget.

But even that is in limbo while legislators consider the merits of voting to override Gov. Greg Gianforte’s veto of Senate Bill 442 last year.

The bill was touted as a way to help pay for, among other things, county road maintenance, behavioral health and treatment programs, wildlife habitat and conservation efforts and state parks, trails and recreational facilities.

After 131 of 150 state legislators voted for the bill last year, Gianforte vetoed it at the time the Senate was adjourning, drawing complaints across the state from diverse groups of people.

If two-thirds of the Legislature, 100 members, vote to override the veto, the bill will become law.

That would certainly please county officials. 

According to a story by the Daily Montanan, an analysis by the state Legislative Services Division determined Montana counties would receive $16.6 annually for county roads. Research by Erin Sullivan, who is also the lead staffer for the Economic Affairs Interim Committee, indicated Lincoln County would be in line to receive $368,000 for road work.

According to previous reporting on the county budget, it cut $500,000 from the budget in 2018 and approved a 2019 budget of $25 million.

For fiscal year 2021, about $200,000 was cut from the budget while $472,606 from federal coronavirus money helped balance it. The budget was just under $11 million then.

The county passed a $14.3 million budget for the current fiscal year. Federal American Recovery Plan Act money along with cuts to the sheriff’s office and library system helped make up the budget shortfall of $1.7 million.

Continuing budget woes have led the library system to seek forming its own district and the question will be on the ballot in the June 4 primary election.