Rick Scott OKs 20% pay raise for Florida elections supervisors
By Dan Sweeney
County supervisors of elections are in for a big pay day.
Their salaries have lagged far behind other elected county positions throughout the state, but on Wednesday, Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill granting them about a 20 percent raise.
According to records from the state Office of Economic and Demographic Research, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel receives $178,099 a year. The county clerk, property appraiser and tax collector all get $169,149 a year. But Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes makes $148,919.
Under the new law, Snipes will make as much as the other officers, though still less than Israel.
The same holds true in Palm Beach County, where Sheriff Ric Bradshaw makes $170,536; the clerk, property appraiser and tax collector all make $161,586; and Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher makes $141,356.
Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Christina White is unlike other supervisors in that she is appointed rather than elected. Her salary, though lower than those of similar elected officials in the county, will not be affected by the law.
South Florida legislators were mixed in their voting on the bill, though most Republicans voted against the raise and most Democrats voted for it.
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The pay raise was one of 14 bills signed into law by Scott Wednesday.
Others included expanding the law regarding terroristic threats, so that threatening to shoot up a place carries the same weight as a bomb threat.
And families of children buried at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys will get $7,500 each to pay for reburial expenses. The school, in operation from 1900 to 2011, closed for budgetary reasons after state and federal investigations into abuse at the school. Work by the University of South Florida found 55 bodies buried onsite, far more than the 31 marked graves located there.
dsweeney@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4605 or Twitter @Daniel_Sweeney
Broward County Sheriff's Office