HERMANN — A panel of Gasconade County officeholders this morning will decide if a pay increase is in order for the next term of the dozen elected officials.

Any increase would become effective for the half-dozen officeholders elected in next November’s General Elections. The other set of county government officeholders will be elected in November 2026.

The county’s Salary Commission will meet at 8:30 this morning (Wednesday) in the courthouse to consider pay increases. The panel meets every odd-numbered year to weigh pay raises for the offices to be filled in the next General Election. For those who win offices next November, the pay raise would become effective Jan. 1, 2025, when those officials’ terms begin.

The Salary Commission session will be called to order by Gasconade County Circuit Clerk Jennifer Schneider, who is elected countywide but paid through the state courts system. Her office’s personnel are paid by county taxpayers. The ciruict clerk’s role will be to call for the selection of a Salary Commission chairman, who will be chosen from among the county government’s elected officials. The chairman then will conduct the meeting.

While base salaries for county officials are prescribed by state government, the Salary Commission can add to the base if it deems appropriate.

In January of 2021, the elected officials received two pay raises — one granted automatically by state government because of increased assessed valuation of the property within the county and the second approved by the Salary Commission. In 2020, the county’s total assessed valuation was placed at $255 million; the trigger for the automatic pay raises was $250 million.

Here are the salaries of Gasconade County’s elected officials, which were established in January of 2021:

Presiding Commissioner – $32,380; Northern District and Southern District Associate Commissioners – $30,380 (state law calls for a presiding commissioner of a 3rd Class county to received $2,000 more than the associate commissioners); County Clerk – $45,000; County Collector – $45,000; County Treasurer – $45,000; Prosecuting Attorney – $55,000 (the county clerk, treasurer, collector and prosecuting attorney’s new pay rate became effective in January of this year with the start of their offices’ new 4-year terms); County Coroner – $17,000; Sheriff – $54,000 (increases almost $5,000 each year for five years, mandated by a state law passed in 2022 tying the sheriff’s salary to the pay of the county’s associate circuit judge, making the sheriff the highest-paid county government officeholder); Public Administrator – $27,000.

The County Assessor is paid $45,000 out of the state’s Assessment Fund.

One of the factors to be considered by the Salary Commission this morning is the overall financial health of the county. County Clerk Lesa Lietzow will present the panel with actual numbers from last year and projected numbers for this year and possibly next year, even though the final month of revenue receipts and expenditures aren’t available.