Arlington County board members are considering giving themselves a pay raise in next year’s budget — their first in four years — even though the county is getting ready to raise taxes by as much as 1.8 percent, officials said Thursday.
The Arlington County Board is the only one in the region thinking about raising its own pay.
The 2.3 percent raise for the part-time board members is similar to an across-the-board pay raise being offered to all county employees. Board salaries would rise from $49,000 annually to $50,127. The board chairman’s salary would increase from $53,900 to $55,140 per year. The board is set to vote on the raise and budget this Saturday.
“They haven’t had a pay change since 2008, and the average step for employees across the county is a 2.8 percent increase,” said Richard Stevenson, the county’s budget director.
The raises would cost the city just $7,862 more next year, he said.
Officials in neighboring Alexandria and Fairfax County haven’t made room in their budgets for a pay upgrade. Alexandria City Councilman Rob Krupicka asked city staff to look at how the council and its staff are paid, but it’s not likely council members will include a pay raise in the budget before it comes to a vote on May 7.
Alexandria’s six council members, who serve part-time, make $27,500 a year. The city’s mayor makes $30,500 annually.
Fairfax board members make $75,000 a year and must vote on a separate resolution to raise their pay rather than just tuck the increase into the county’s budget, county spokeswoman Merni Fitzgerald said. The board last raised its pay in 2006, and that was after going eight years without an increase. The 2006 raise lifted board members’ salaries from $59,000 to $75,000, Fitzgerald said.
The Fairfax budget includes no money for a board raise.
