Owsley County Officials Approve Cost-of-Living Raises for Jailer, Coroner

The Owsley County Fiscal Court approved cost-of-living adjustments tied to the Consumer Price Index for the county jailer and coroner at its regular meeting Monday, March 9, with County Judge Executive Zeke Little presiding.

The raises apply specifically to those two elected offices. The source summary of the meeting is truncated before fully describing any action taken regarding magistrate pay, and the complete meeting minutes should be consulted to determine whether magistrate salaries were deferred, left unchanged, or addressed in another way.

No specific percentage was included in the available meeting summary for Owsley County. For comparison, Boyle County's Fiscal Court approved a 2.7% CPI-tied cost-of-living increase for its county attorney, county coroner and county magistrates at a Feb. 10 meeting, with that figure explicitly tied to House Bill H 810, a state salary-setting reference. That action was a separate proceeding by a different county government, and there is no indication in the Owsley record that the same percentage or the same legislative framework was used.

The Owsley County Fiscal Court is the five-member governing body responsible for the county's budget and operational decisions. Cost-of-living adjustments for elected officials are governed by state law and tied to CPI benchmarks, meaning the court's discretion in setting those figures is constrained by the applicable formula in effect for the relevant fiscal year.

Full minutes and the agenda packet from the March 9 meeting would confirm the exact percentage approved, the effective date of the adjustments, the vote method, and the complete disposition of any magistrate-related item that was pending at the close of the truncated summary.