Texas AG says counties can spend COVID relief funds on extra pay for elected officials without public notice

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Whereas Texas counties should notify taxpayers earlier than growing elected officers’ salaries, they doubtless don’t should have to provide such advance discover when utilizing federal COVID-19 aid funds for sure pay will increase, Texas Legal professional Common Ken Paxton stated in a nonbinding opinion this week.

Tyler County, situated about 120 miles northeast of Houston, acquired greater than $4 million in direct federal funding beneath the American Rescue Plan Act final 12 months. Now, elected or appointed county officers who’ve labored in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic may every obtain as much as $25,000 of that funding.

This week, Paxton’s workplace issued the nonbinding opinion in response to a February request from the Tyler County auditor.

In accordance with state legislation, any will increase in elected officers’ “wage, bills, or allowances” should be famous upfront for public assessment earlier than the annual county price range is authorised. Tyler officers needed to know whether or not they had been allowed to pay their workers and officers from these federal funds although the funds weren’t included within the annual price range. The opinion likens these aid funds, often called “premium pay,” to hazard pay and stated a court docket would doubtless conclude they don’t fall beneath the class of wage that requires advance discover. In accordance with the legal professional basic workplace’s opinion, which means the county may allocate the funding to its officers with out ready for the price range assessment.

In accordance with the U.S. Division of the Treasury, Tyler County has acquired $4.2 million straight from the federal authorities in state and native fiscal restoration funds as a part of the American Rescue Plan Act. Tyler County Decide Jacques L. Blanchette stated roughly $2.2 million of the funding was granted in 2021 whereas the remaining was granted in 2022. Of that $2.2 million, roughly $450,000 went to county workers, together with elected officers, who every acquired $3,500.

Blanchette stated the auditor’s letter was despatched after the county already paid the additional funds to its workers and officers, each appointed and elected, from the aid funding final September. On the time, the county “believed that it was acceptable from what the auditor had really helpful” when the county commissioners court docket first thought-about it, Blanchette stated. Nonetheless, Blanchette added that the county’s determination sparked an issue inside Tyler County, which is what led to the auditor’s letter to Paxton’s workplace.

“It was uncharted waters, and I consider many counties had been evaluating to find out if and the way a lot that they might select to distribute inside the county authorities,” Blanchette stated. “A variety of the opposite counties that I spoke with weren’t of the assumption that they might, primarily based upon some language that authorized counsel had shared with them.”

Three Tyler County workers returned their checks to the county treasury once they first obtained them, Blanchette stated: treasurer Leann Monk, clerk Donece Gregory, and Blanchette himself. He added {that a} fourth, publicly unnamed county worker returned their $3,500 examine in January.

Whereas Paxton’s opinion would point out that Tyler County is within the clear for its option to pay its workers, together with elected officers, Blanchette expressed doubt that the county would repeat the choice.

“It turned so controversial within the county that I strongly sense that there will likely be no further distribution to the staff or the officers from that second half of the allocation,” he stated.

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