On Tuesday, the Leon County Commission voted 4-3 to approve a 5% across the board pay increase for all Leon County Government and Constitutional Officer employees in the FY 2026 Budget.
County commissioners Christian Caban, Nick Maddox, Bill Proctor and Carolyn Cummings voted for the across the board raise while commissioners Brian Welch, Rick Minor and David O’Keefe voted no, preferring instead, a 3% average raise based on performance which would have saved approximately $1.4 million.
Chairman Brian Welch stated that the across the board raise was “bad fiscal policy.”
Welch said, “I think that this is now 20% over four years, I think it’s really bad fiscal policy. I think that while we may have the money now, we all acknowledge that we very likely won’t have it next year or the year after that….We are effectively saying that we’re going to give a 5% across-the-board pay increase in this county every year, which means in 20 years, salaries are going to double.”
For the past three years, county employees have received an across-the-board pay increase of 5%.
Background & Analysis
During a previous budget workshop, the Board approved 0-5% performance pay increases with an average of 3% for all Leon County Government and Constitutional Officer employees in the FY 2026 Preliminary Budget, and directed staff to bring back an option to approve a 5% across the board pay increase once final property tax values were available.
Satff analysis indicated that 0-5% performance pay increases with an average of 3% for all Leon County Government and Constitutional Officer employees reduced planned expenditures by $1.4 million in general revenue and $314,793 in special revenue fund balances.
However, during Tuesday’s meeting the staff analysis indicated that “due to the increase in property values from the June 1st estimate, and expenditure reductions identified since the June 17th Budget Workshop, funding is available should the Board choose to include the 5% raises in the Tentative Budget without utilizing general revenue fund balance or reducing expenses in other areas of the budget.”
Staff also noted that the Board could choose to maintain the 0-5% performance pay increase with an average of 3% and allow the $1.4 million in general revenue savings to go into reserves.
Wow! Across the board 5% pay raises when the LCS budget is $12 million in the hole. These county commissioners are pathetic. Every one of them need to be voted out.
The first thing that struck me was how wrong Brian Welch was about how long it would take to double County salaries. I see that NewsMaven beat me to the punch. Anyone who has taken an intro course to finance knows the Rule of 72. A 5% increase annually over just more than 14 years would double the salaries.
It's much worse than the social studies teacher things. At least he was on the right side of the vote this time.
Caban deciding vote to spend more on liberal fluff..
@ New Maven
And Brian Welch is a high-school teacher. I sure hope he doesn't teach math.
Mr. Hawkins, are you sure you don't want to try one more time? I know a lot of people that will vote for you.
These people never stop. Just like the city..let's hope DeSantis does something about this. They should have to budget like normal people. Everyone should have an employer like the county.and.city with unlimited taxpayer.funds. Sickening...
And Brian is mathematically incorrect about salaries doubling in 20 years.
Think “compounding interest.”
At a 5% annual increase in salary, it will take approximately 14.21 years for an individual's salary to double.
This can be estimated using the Rule of 72, which states that you divide 72 by the annual growth rate (as a percentage, not a decimal) to find the approximate doubling time.
Welcome to TAXAHASSEE, where fiscally illiterate (illiberal) voters rule.
Where have you gone, America’s Governor?
Jeezus, we need you more than you could know,
So, the "little guy" making $35,000 busting his a$$ to do a good job gets a $1,750 raise while the "big guy" making $150,000 and taking 2 hour lunch breaks gets a whopping $7,500 raise. Is that really fair?
Across-the-board fixed percentage raises are a management cop-out and are very unfair. Merit based increases are the only way a hard-working "little guy" can get ahead.
Why? Things are tough all over.
Only in Government can you:
Raise taxes and charge an extra fee because you can't properly fund basic fire services.
https://www.wctv.tv/2025/06/11/tallahassee-city-commission-votes-raise-fire-service-fee-residents/
Have a $12 million shortfall in the budgets for schools.
https://www.wtxl.com/southwest-tallahassee/leon-county-schools-to-lose-millions-of-dollars-for-next-years-school-budget
Then give everyone a raise because they can't properly plan to fund schools or firemen.
Does this include their own salaries? Do they ever vote to cut spending? I dont mind paying employees for work, but surely the county could do less work.
County could have lowered the mileage and choose not to. I hope in 2026 we get a chance to eliminate property tax.
If COLA is good enough for regular citizens...
Like a Kid in a Candy Store that just found a Dollar.