It’s not often someone takes issue with being paid too much, but two newly elected Lubbock county commissioners have done just that.
Commissioners Jason Corley and Chad Seay recently took action to dramatically reduce their take-home pay from the county, quickly fulfilling a campaign promise.
The campaign promise stems from Corley and Seay’s disagreement with a decision made by county commissioners in 2014 to increase their salaries by over $22,000—from $57,600 to $79,985. Corley stated that except for making financial decisions and interacting with citizens, a county commissioner’s role is a part-time job.
Corley also recently told Lubbock’s KCBD that his grievance wasn’t necessarily with the salary amount, but rather how commissioners came to that number.
“I want to see a citizen’s board appointed to make recommendations to the commissioners on what their pay should be,” he said.
Seay echoed Corley’s desire to establish a commissioner-appointed citizen committee, saying they’d like for their salaries to be based on the Lubbock County average rather than commissioners’ salaries in other counties.
Corley filed an Affidavit of Salary Donation January 14, where he retracted the 2014 pay raise of $22,000 and reduced his salary to $57,600.
Seay, instead of changing his salary, committed to donating nearly $18,000 of it to charity. He will keep $4,800 for travel expenses within Precinct 4. He reportedly opted for this option because he didn’t want the difference going back to the county general fund.
Both commissioners defeated longtime incumbents in the 2018 Republican Primary by a significant margin, with Corley receiving 56 percent of the vote and Seay 60 percent. The two commissioners, each small business owners, campaigned on taking a more fiscally responsible approach to county budgeting, which included lowering taxes and stopping unnecessary pay raises for elected officials.
