Black Hawk County supervisors approve pay increases for nonbargaining staff, adopt HR pay recommendation for elected officials during budget work session

Black Hawk County supervisors on Feb. 27 approved a 3.25% across-the-board increase for nonbargaining employees and non‑elected directors and accepted a human resources recommendation to raise several elected officials’ salaries, while continuing budget discussions about levy levels, fund balance trends and community grants.

The board voted to raise the county’s property-tax asking in the worksheets being used for this budget cycle, discussed options for nonbargaining merit increases and elected-official pay, and directed staff to continue work on capital-bonding language and a preliminary levy schedule that would accommodate a first-year debt service payment on a proposed bond issue.

County staff told supervisors the current property-tax asking in the draft budget assumes collections 5% higher than last year, and presented per-property examples so taxpayers can estimate impacts. “An urban residential property would have an increase of about $4.21 per $120,000 of their assessed value,” staff said during the presentation. Commercial and industrial property classes showed smaller percentage increases in the packet presented to the board.

On pay, supervisors chose between alternative approaches presented by human resources. The board approved a motion to set the nonbargaining annual increase at 3.25% for affected nonbargaining employees and for non‑elected director positions; the…