Ahead of a vote by Travis County commissioners on July 30 to give themselves and other elected officials significant pay raises in fiscal 2020, an American-Statesman analysis found that the county's elected officials make less money than their counterparts in other large Texas and similar-sized U.S. counties.

The Statesman looked at the base salaries of elected officials in eight other Texas counties and two U.S. counties. The Travis County commissioners could get a 27% pay increase, if the raises are approved.

The proposed salary increases are part of a three-year plan to get elected officials' pay up to a comparable market rate after the county's Human Resources Department found in 2018 that their pay was significantly out of line with what officials make in other large Texas counties. The Statesman verified this in its own analysis.

According to data released by the Texas Association of Counties for fiscal 2018, Travis County commissioners made 25% less than their counterparts in other Texas counties with populations of 800,000 people or more; its county judge made 24% less, the sheriff 12% less, and county and district clerks about 1.5% less.

The comparison included Travis, Bexar, Collin, Dallas, Harris, Tarrant, Denton, El Paso and Hidalgo counties, which are some of the state's most populous.

Commissioners in Harris County, which includes Houston, made $182,562 in fiscal 2018, the most of any Texas county. Harris County has a population of 4.6 million people, though, compared with Travis County's 1.2 million.

In Bexar County, with a population of 1.9 million, commissioners made $122,567 annually.

Denton County, which has the smallest population of the counties in the comparison at 836,210, paid its commissioners $113,067 in fiscal 2018, which is more than the $106,031 commissioners made that year in Travis County.

The 2018 market salary survey completed by Travis County found even greater discrepancies in pay, with commissioners earning 43% less than in comparably sized counties. However, its analysis only included Travis, Bexar, Collin, Dallas, Harris and Tarrant counties. All of those counties have populations greater than Travis County, except for Collin County.

The Statesman, as part of its analysis, also looked at elected officials' salaries in other counties across the country that are similar in size to Travis County and growing at similar rates. In Washington state's King County, which includes Seattle, the commissioners’ counterparts in 2018 were paid a base salary of $151,440, tens of thousands more than in Travis County.

In Hennepin County, Minn., which has a population similar to Travis County's at 1.2 million, most commissioners made $113,566 in fiscal 2018, more than in Travis County. The sheriff made $173,356 and the county attorney $182,025. In Travis County, those positions paid $146,350 and $177,396, respectively.

"Market is tough to do with elected officials because there is not a market, per se," Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt told the Statesman last week. "I am not going to move to Williamson County because they pay their county judge more."

For elected officials, the "market" can mean the ability to draw possible candidates who aren't deterred by a salary smaller than what they would earn in the private sector.

Still, the county believes it is important to pay its elected officials at the same rate as other similar counties, spokesman Hector Nieto said Thursday.

Travis County commissioners voted last year to give themselves and other elected officials the first of three rounds of raises, to bring them up to what the county determined as the market rate based on its analysis. However, because of a 3.5% revenue cap approved by the Legislature this year, which will reduce the amount of money Travis County has on hand in the coming years, the budget office has recommending giving the remainder of the raises in fiscal 2020, instead of phasing them in over the next two budget years.

Raises approved last year brought commissioners' salaries up from $106,031 to $119,508. They are set to get a $32,309 pay raise for fiscal 2020, bringing their salaries up to $151,817.

Other proposed increases include a $6,544 raise for some county constables, a $13,000 raise for the district and county clerks, $19,427 more for the sheriff, and $31,371 in additional pay for the county judge, who presides over the Commissioners Court as the county’s chief administrator.

For commissioners, the pay increase amounts to a 27% raise, for the county judge a 22% raise, the sheriff a 12.5% raise, and 6% raises for the county and district clerks. In previous years, elected officials have gotten the same 2% to 3% raise that county staffers receive.

"They are high. I completely concede," Eckhardt said last week of the increases. "This is a very difficult political responsibility that the commissioners have, but it is our responsibility to set an appropriate pay structure."

Commissioners will hold a public hearing at their July 30 meeting before voting on the salary increases, which, if approved, will amount to nearly $650,000 in new spending in fiscal 2020. Commissioners plan to vote on the budget Sept. 24.