Hennepin County commissioners hike their pay to $182,000

That represents a 49 percent increase over the current level of $122,225. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports:

Hennepin County Board members are ready to give themselves a 49% pay hike while also backing generous salary increases for the two countywide elected offices of sheriff and attorney.

Board members voted 4 to 2 to advance the hefty pay raises for themselves during a committee meeting Tuesday. The members also voted 6 to 0 for the pay increases for the county attorney and sheriff.

You read that correctly, soft-on-crime county attorney Mary Moriarty will be paid $218,272 next year for not prosecuting crime.

The seven-member board serves as the board of directors for the state’s largest county, which includes the City of Minneapolis. The board meets only weekly, but commissioners believe that they should be paid on par with full-time executives.

The board’s lone Republican member, Jeff Lunde of Brooklyn Park, was absent but would have voted “no” according to reports.

Four of the seven board seats are up for election this year. Only one commissioner up for re-election in November, Debbie Goettel, voted “yes” on the pay raise.

Commissioners of neighboring Ramsey County (which includes the City of St. Paul) recently voted themselves a more modest 3 percent increase and will earn $104,077 next year.

The board’s new pay level seems all the more ridiculous when you consider that members of the U.S. Congress only earn $174,000 per year.

Board members of the ultra-liberal and super expensive City-County of San Francisco (CA) earn a mere $156,000 per year.

Miami-Dade County (FL) commissioners govern a county more than twice as large as Hennepin, yet receive an official salary of only $6,000 per year. Two years ago, the board controversially raised their total compensation, including benefits to $130,000 per year.

Your tax dollars at work!