Bexar County Commissioners are again considering raising their own salaries, bringing their pay to roughly $170,700 per year for the four commissioners and $205,000 per year for the county judge.
Those numbers include a $9,000 per year auto allowance for commissioners.
Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai currently makes $199,000 per year, while commissioners make $166,500.
By comparison, members of the San Antonio City Council currently make $45,722 per year. Council pay is set by the City Charter, and they’re asking voters to amend it on the November ballot to bring their salaries up to $70,200 per year — something city leaders say might require a professional marketing campaign to bring the public on board with.
The county is proposing a 3% raise across all of its elected positions for the coming fiscal year, which commissioners can approve unilaterally with their budget next month.
In addition to the county commissioners, the raise would apply to the district attorney, the county clerk, the district clerk, the tax assessor-collector, the sheriff, constables, justices of the peace and probate court judges.
The move comes after commissioners last year assembled a salary review committee to figure out how to address salary discrepancies among the four commissioners.
Specifically, raises that previous commissioners turned down had carried forward to the county’s new officeholders, leaving the four county commissioners with salaries ranging between $131,000 and $148,000.
The county’s salary committee recommended that commissioners’ salaries be brought to a uniform $150,000 per year, plus a 5% pay increase for the 2024 fiscal year, which commissioners approved last year, and another 5% pay increase for the 2025 fiscal year.
The second 5% pay increase was included in the county’s 2025 budget proposal, but commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to bring it down to 3% increase — matching what the county is proposing for its employees.
