GILMER – Upshur County commissioners have voted to raise elected officials’ salaries by $1,800 during the next fiscal year, with county officials saying the raises were needed.

Commissioners also are planning to approve employee pay raises of $1,800 per year for the next fiscal year. The proposed employee raises are included in the proposed 2025-26 budget, which commissioners will vote to adopt in August.

“We still have a lot of work to do to get the salaries at a competitive level,” County Auditor Connie Williams said during Tuesday’s commissioners meeting.

Among more than 20 Texas counties of similar size, Upshur County has the lowest pay for several of its elected officials, including the county judge, district clerk and sheriff. Elected officials in Upshur County make an average of $25,000 per year less than their counterparts in similarly sized counties, according to data from the Texas Association of Counties.

Upshur County commissioners have been working to increase employee pay for about five years. They approved across-the-board raises of $1,200 in fiscal years 2020, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Employees received a $1,000 across-the-board raise in 2022 and stipends of up to $4,500 in 2021 thanks to federal grant money as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Those raises came after a four-year period in which employee pay wasn’t substantially increased. From 2015 to 2019, employees received an across-the board pay raise of $1,200 in 2018. In 2015, employees received raises of up to $1,200 depending upon their years of service, but the county commissioners at the time also cut the country’s contributions to employee retirement in half.

So far, employee raises have kept pace with inflation, Williams previously said. The average salary for Upshur County employees is $41,700.

“There are many departments that are exceptionally hard-working and do a fantastic job,” Williams previously said. “As much as they might like working in Upshur County, if they’re not being paid enough to meet their living expenses, they’re gonna have to find an alternative. It’s important to be competitive, at least with counties of similar size.”

As part of their vote to raise the salaries of elected officials, commissioners voted to give Upshur County District Attorney Billy Byrd a $12,000 annual supplement.

During Tuesday’s meeting, commissioners also approved change orders to the ongoing restoration project at the Upshur County Courthouse. The changes to construction plans will save roughly $70,000, said Marion County Judge Leward LaFleur, who is overseeing the project for Upshur County. The $15.3 million project is slated to wrap up in January.

“We’re moving right along,” LaFleur said.