How much Kankakee County elected officials will receive in annual salary for the next four years, beginning with the start of the fiscal year on Dec. 1, was finalized at Tuesday’s county board meeting.

It’s a process the county uses to approve the salaries for the clerk, treasurer, sheriff, board chairman, and members. The salaries were reviewed and approved in March by the Finance Committee.

While county leadership gained pay increases, the county board chairman declined his raises for the next two years.

County Administrator Anita Speckman said she uses data from the United Counties Council of Illinois, a statewide agency, to set the salaries for clerk and treasurer.

The agency looks at salaries for clerks and treasurers across the state and compares them with counties that are similar in size to Kankakee County. That ensures Kankakee County is paying the market rate.

“Then I also take into account my discussion … with the chairman,” she said. “Since I’ve been here eight years, that’s been my process to give that data to the chairman, along with what our union negotiations and those increases, what the increases typically are for our nonunion employees, so that we’re looking across the board what we’re increasing for our employees.”

Speckman said based on that information, the county determined a 5.3% increase for year one and then a 3% increase each of the next three years for those two positions. State law requires the county to set the salary 180 days before the start of their term on Dec. 1.

The salary for the clerk and the treasurer each will increase on Dec. 1 to $84,843 and increase to $87,388 in 2027, $90,010 in 2028 and $92,720 in 2029. Both are currently paid $80,580.

The Kankakee County Sheriff, by state law, is to be paid no less than 80% of what the state’s attorney is being paid. The state’s attorney’s salary is set July 1 by the state of Illinois.

“So we don’t have that number right now,” Speckman said. “That’s why you’ll see in the resolution it simply refers to the state statute, and it affirms that that is set, and that’s what we will pay.”

In addition the state will pay two-thirds of the county sheriff’s salary. The sheriff will also be paid an annual stipend of $6,500 by the Illinois Department of Revenue out of the Personal Property Tax Replacement Fund. The total salary will be in effect through Nov. 30, 2030.

In 2022, the sheriff’s salary was set at approximately $147,000.

Board Chairman Matt Alexander-Hildebrand’s salary is currently $63,654, and he receives $3,500 as liquor commissioner.

Alexander-Hildebrand was in line for a salary bump to $65,510 in year one and to $67,475 in year two, but he made a motion to amend the resolution to decline the increases over the next two years. The motion was approved.

“[The money] will go back to the citizens,” Alexander-Hildebrand said when asked by board members.

The board also approved a per diem increase of $75 to $85 for board members in odd-numbered districts to put them on the same scale of the even-numbered districts. The vice chairman’s per diem was also increased from $110 to $115.