The majority of Fayette County commissioners Thursday voted to grant annual pay raises of 3 percent to all county elected officials beginning in 2012 and continuing through the end of 2017.

On average, the annual salary of a row officer will go from the current $44,837 to $46,182 in 2012. The commissioners' salaries will increase from the current $47,970 to $49,409 in 2012. The chairman of the board of commissioners earns an extra $1,000 annually.

The motion was approved by a 2-1 vote, with Commission Chairman Vincent Zapotosky and Commissioner Vincent A. Vicites voting in favor and Commissioner Angela M. Zimmerlink voting against it.

The special meeting in which the action was taken was called after the county row officers circulated a petition earlier this year seeking a meeting to set the salaries of elected officials whose terms begin in 2012, which by law must be held in the evening prior to an election year.

Since 2011 is an election year, the salary decision had to be made before the end of 2010.

The affected offices include the three county commissioners, the controller, treasurer, clerk of courts, coroner, jury commissioners, prothonotary, recorder of deeds, register of wills and sheriff. The new salaries will not take effect until the beginning of the next four-year term of the offices.

At the beginning of the meeting, Coroner Dr. Phillip E. Reilly requested that the commissioners grant an annual cost of living increase for the elected officials for an indefinite time period, and also asked that it have an effective date of retroactive to January 2010.

Reilly, who was presenting a proposal on behalf of the row officers, asked that the annual cost of living adjustments be evaluated each year in December for the following year, and that they be set at between 3 percent and 6 percent.

Reilly pointed out that it has been four years since elected officials have received a pay raise.

The last pay raise, enacted in 2002, ended in 2007. Public officials who took office in 2008 still have the same salary they did two years ago, and will have the same salary through the end of 2011.

County solicitor Joseph E. Ferens Jr. said a raise couldn't be given retroactively because by law it can't take effect until the next term. Although Reilly argued that there is a difference between a cost of living adjustment and a change in base pay, Ferens said there isn't a difference.

"It's the same thing, you're getting more money," Ferens said.

Ferens said he is friends with many of the row officers, but he has to take the position from reading the state constitution that raises can't be given for people who have already been elected to office.

Clerk of Courts Janice Snyder agreed with Ferens, and simply asked that the commissioners approve a resolution for pay increases to take affect in the next term.

"We row officers haven't had a raise in many years," Snyder said.

Vicites said no action was taken in 2006 to increase salaries for the current term and if something isn't approved now, it would be eight years between raises.

Controller Sean Lally said because elected officials haven't been getting annual raises, essentially they are making less money because the cost of living is increasing.

"My salary is being decreased 4 percent every year," Lally said.

Lally said giving an annual 3 percent increase to elected officials would only be an increase of $15,671 to the budget in 2012, gradually increasing to a cost of $18,167 to the budget by 2017. He said the pay increases only amount to .001 percent of the county's annual $23.7 million budget.

According to a sheet with information provided by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission of salaries of officials in seven neighboring counties, the Fayette County commissioners' annual $47,970 salaries are only higher than the Greene County commissioners' annual salaries of $43,384. The average annual salary of commissioners in all eight counties is $58,400.

Vicites pointed out that Greene County (a Sixth Class County) has 108,000 fewer people than Fayette County.

Snyder said Fayette County has the lowest salaries for elected officials of all Fourth Class Counties in the state.

Of the other Fourth Class Counties in the SPC region, commissioners in Beaver County make $60,812 annually; in Butler County commissioners make $75,754 annually; and in Washington county, commissioners make $72,000 annually.

Vicites, who made the motion for the pay increases, said in 2002 the annual raises were also 3 percent. Zapotosky pointed out that a 3 percent pay increase is consistent with county union contracts.

After the vote, Zimmerlink said she voted against the raises because many of the county taxpayers are on fixed incomes and some of those working in the private sector haven't gotten raises, and the commissioners should share in the sacrifices of the taxpayers.

"As they tighten their belt, we should, too," Zimmerlink said.

Snyder said row officers are taxpayers, too. She said elected officials get pointed at unfairly because last year the Legislature adopted a budget more than 100 days late, and the lawmakers still got their pay increases, while the local row officers didn't.

Vicites pointed out that in the 2003 through 2007 term Zimmerlink didn't accept pay raises, but she did take a higher salary when she won re-election in 2008.

Zimmerlink said she didn't get raises during her first term, unlike Vicites, but when she took office in 2008, she took that salary.

"You got the money in the end," Vicites said.

During comments, John "Toots" Croftcheck of Uniontown, a former commissioner candidate, said he wasn't at the meeting to speak against raises, but said he thinks it's a bad time for them with unemployment in the county at 15 percent.

"The word on the street is it's a bad time to give raises," Croftcheck said.

County employee Robert Calisti said he never got a cost of living increase during his 11 years as a county employee, but he has received raises almost every year.