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Committee backs 12% pay increase for elected county officials, effective July 1, 2026
Summary
The Senate Committee on Government Organization approved a committee substitute for Senate Bill 5 87 authorizing a 12% across‑the‑board pay increase for county elected officials effective July 1, 2026, and a mechanism allowing county commissions beginning in 2028 to grant future 2%–5% annual increases if local budgets support them; the substitute will be reported to the full Senate with a referral to Finance.
The Committee on Government Organization approved a committee substitute for Senate Bill 5 87 that authorizes a 12% salary increase for elected county officials, effective July 1, 2026, Committee counsel told the panel.
The substitute covers county commissioners, sheriffs, county clerks, circuit clerks, assessors and prosecuting attorneys and includes a mechanism that would permit county commissions beginning in 2028 to provide future raises of between 2% and 5% per year — applied across all eligible county officials — if the county budget has increased sufficiently since the last compensation adjustment, counsel said. "This bill authorizes a 12% salary increase for elected county officials, which takes effect 07/01/2026," the counsel stated.
Why it matters: the change is intended to remove the need for repeated legislative pay increases by allowing local determination of modest, budget‑contingent raises while preserving a constitutional safeguard. Counsel told senators the mechanism is structured to avoid conflict with the West Virginia Constitution’s prohibition on raising officials’ pay during their terms.
Key details: the substitute reduced an earlier 18% increase in the introduced bill to 12% through negotiation with stakeholders. Counsel said the fiscal note estimates roughly $114,100 in additional county expense if every elected official in a class‑1 county received the raise; the counsel also noted the bill has a second reference to the Finance Committee.
Questions from members focused on scope and parity. The junior senator from the sixteenth asked whether any future county increase could be applied selectively; counsel replied that the 2028 mechanism requires the increase be applied across the board to all elected county officials who began their terms at the time of the review, preventing county commissions from choosing to raise some offices but not others.
Action: the committee agreed to the committee substitute by voice vote and the vice chair moved that the substitute be reported to the full Senate with a recommendation that it pass, with the original double committee reference first to the Finance Committee; the motion was adopted.
Next steps: the committee substitute will be reported to the full Senate and sent to the Finance Committee for further consideration.
