Wayne County Council has earmarked more than $1 million to boost employee wages next year.
Council met Oct. 6 for the public hearing on its 2026 budgets, and during discussions that followed, decided on the wage issues. No members of the public spoke during the hearing.
Budget adoption is scheduled for council’s 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16, workshop. Council advertised a total budget of $72,726,260 and a general fund budget of $44,215,326. Those figures are purposely higher than what the final budget numbers will be.
Max Smith, council’s president, said the state has not treated county governments right, because the state still cannot provide 2026 revenue expectations after legislative changes this year.
Council had trimmed the general fund budget to about $43.3 million when its meeting ended. That’s still about $1.9 million more than council’s stated goal of matching the $38.4 million 2025 general fund budget.
Consultant Waggoner Irwin Scheele and Associates of Muncie studied wages for the county’s seven job classifications this year, comparing them to similar positions outside the county. Council will raise wages to each classification’s midpoint established in the study. Those raises will range between about 4% and 7%.
Council decided not to give raises to elected officials.
“Our elected officials are way above other counties already — way above,” said Beth Leisure, chair of council’s finance committee.
Wages for chief deputy positions are 75% of the elected officials’ wages. Council opted to provide a one-time $1,400 stipend for each chief deputy.
Council members considered coroner’s office wages separately, providing 16% raises. That pushes the part-time coroner’s salary to $34,616, his chief deputy’s salary to $25,962 and the four other deputies’ wages to $11,600.
A version of this article appeared in the October 8 2025 print edition of the Western Wayne News.