Reminder: 2023 COLAs/Raises for County Officials Effective January 1, 2023
The General Assembly’s recently approved Amended Budget for FY2022 includes $5,000 raises for most state employees. Whenever state employees receive salary increases of a certain percentage or amount, state law provides that same percentage or amount increase must be applied to the compensation for many county officials: members of boards of commissioners, constitutional officers (sheriffs, superior court clerks, probate judges, and tax commissioners), magistrate judges, and most coroners. The state Office of Planning and Budget (OPB) provided confirmation that $5,000 is the correct amount for purposes of calculating the above county officials’ required salary increases. While the state employees’ raises begin in the near future, the same laws described above say that the related increases for local officials become effective the next January 1st; as a result, the $5,000 increase for these county officials will become effective January 1, 2023.