Senate and Assembly differ on setting county salaries

The Senate and Assembly have a disagreement to work out over salaries of county officials.

While the Assembly bill -- AB23 -- provides raises only for sheriffs and district attorneys, the Senate bill passed Friday would also increase pay for clerks, assessors, recorders, treasurers, public administrators and elected commissioners.

A similar comprehensive pay bill for county elected officials -- AB66 -- died on the Assembly side after several members of the Government Affairs Committee objected to the refusal of Clark County commissioners to settle their pay dispute with county classified employees. That contract dispute has since been resolved.

But AB23 introduced by Speaker Richard Perkins, who is deputy chief of police in Henderson, was passed earlier this week giving the requested pay hikes to sheriffs and district attorneys.

All three bills provide increases for the different offices averaging more than 25 percent.

Andrew List of the Nevada Association of Counties has said the increases merely catch up elected officials to what the average private sector worker has been granted since lawmakers last approved raises in 1995.

Under the legislation approved by the Assembly this week, Carson District Attorney Noel Waters would increase from a base pay of $72,360 to $85,534 and Sheriff Kenny Furlong from $60,000 to $70,923. The Senate version would raise Waters to $98,707 and Furlong to $81,864. Those same pay rates would also apply, in both bills, to DAs and sheriffs in Douglas, Lyon, Elko, Humboldt and Nye counties.

The Senate bill would also provide increases for other elected officers. Clerks, assessors, recorders, treasurers and administrators in Carson and the other counties listed would see their base increase from $51,360 to $68,309.

Elected commissioners in those counties would get increases from $18,000 to $23,940.

The big increases were in the Clark and Washoe offices. Clark commissioners would increase from $51,000 a year to $71,280 while their counterparts in Washoe go from $39,600 to $52,668. The Clark DA would increase from $100,800 to $155,745 and the Washoe DA from $96,000 to $137,485. The sheriff in Clark goes from $84,000 to $134,263, and in Washoe the sheriff's pay would rise from $78,000 to $110,632.

The difference will have to be worked out before the end of the session.