Butte County Board Votes Itself a Pay Hike After State Bailout

Supervisors in Butte County, which narrowly avoided the nation’s first county bankruptcy last fall, voted Tuesday to give themselves a 5% raise.

The pay raise, which immediately increases supervisors’ $11,568 annual salary to $12,149, was approved on a 3-2 vote without debate.

Supervisor Len Fulton made the motion for the raise, saying that the pay hike restores only half of the 10% cut the board members took at his urging in 1982.

County employees also have received a 5% raise, their first pay increase in four years.

Last fall, the state Legislature and then-Gov. George Deukmejian approved an $11.1-million aid package aimed at getting the county through the current fiscal year with a balanced $155-million budget. County officials have said that they could still face insolvency next year.

The county blames its fiscal troubles on insufficient state funding for programs it is required to provide under state law, such as welfare and health care for the poor.

The state suggested that the county’s financial mess was at least partly the result of inefficient management.