Higher Than You Thought?
It's 2017, and Pasco County Commissioners' salaries are now over the $85,000 mark. According to the County's Final Adjustments of Fiscal Year 2017 Budget, the County Commission has adopted a new salary budget for themselves : a whopping $425,480. This averages out to $85,096 per commissioner. The new salary budget is slightly higher than last year's $423,970. See the chart below for the figures:
Although the increase from last year is moderate, the salaries themselves certainly are not. According to the 2010 Census, the median income in Pasco County is $45,064 (in 2015 dollars), nearly half of what the commissioners make. Can we trust that our county commissioners understand the real needs of our community when they make nearly double the median income of Pasco workers? More importantly, do they have our best interests in mind when approving millions of dollars of new taxes for us and our children? Do they understand the impact of their spending on current and future taxpayers?
Pasco county commissioners Jack Mariano, Kathryn Starkey, Mike Moore, Ron Oakley, and Mike Wells Jr.
Can we trust that our county commissioners understand the real needs of our community when they make nearly doubly the median income of Pasco workers?
Who Decides Their Pay?
Apparently, the state government of Florida thinks that it is within their duties to decide how much county commissioners will be paid. In their salaries report for fiscal year 2016-2017, the state of Florida shows how much they decided the county commissioners of each county in Florida will be paid. Evidently, they do not think such a decision ought to be made on the local level.
Perhaps a fresh examination of our county commission is in order. We must be able to assess the commission's performance to see if they deserve $85,000 salaries. As taxpayers, we must pay much more attention to the actions of our elected officials whose jobs include taxing us and our families. If after our public examination, we decide that $85,000 is far too much for the service they are doing for our community, then we must demand they do everything in their power to change it. If they don't, we must vote them out.
