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Committee hears bill to raise deputies' pay ceiling from 95% to 97% of sheriff's salary
Summary
Representative Neil Duram presented House Bill 486 to allow higher maximum compensation for county deputies by increasing the statutory ceiling tied to the sheriff's salary. Sponsors and committee members discussed how base salary and longevity payments factor into the calculation.
Representative Neil Duram, sponsor of House Bill 486, told the Local Government Committee the bill would increase the statutory maximum deputy pay from 95 percent to 97 percent of the sheriff's salary in order to give counties and sheriffs more flexibility to raise deputy wages.
Duram said the bill resulted from a constituent's concern after school tours to the Capitol and from reviewing county pay practices. "The deputies are maxed out at 95%. My best attempt at finding a wage increase option for the deputies was to increase that max compensation for the deputies to 97%," Representative Neil Duram said.
Committee members asked technical questions about how the deputies' percentage is calculated and whether the statutory reference to "total salary" includes longevity pay or other supplements. Representative Cochran asked whether the term "total salary" in current statute could allow extra pay elements (for example longevity payments) to be included in the base used to calculate deputies' percentages.
A committee staff member and the bill sponsor said those additional statutory payments are generally considered in addition to base salary and that the committee could ask the bill drafter to clarify language (for example, changing "total salary" to "base salary") in the explanatory amendment (EA) if the committee wished.
Representative Sprunger asked whether county commissioners would have authority or capacity to pay deputies if the ceiling is raised. Duram said the bill "allows" counties to pay up to a higher ceiling but does not provide additional county funding; it merely increases the statutory ceiling so sheriffs and commissioners have the ability to pay more if local budgets allow.
The hearing closed and later in the meeting the committee took executive action on the bill. During the executive action the motion to pass House Bill 486 was made and the bill was advanced out of committee via voice vote; the transcript records the motion and a voice vote but does not include a roll-call tally.
Ending: The bill would raise the statutory ceiling for deputy compensation to 97 percent of the sheriff's salary, leaving local budget and county authority over actual pay levels intact. Committee members suggested clarifying the bill language to specify "base salary" where appropriate.
