County Commissioners Vote 4-3 for Across-the-Board Employee Pay Increase

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.