Commissioners approve elected official salary raises for budget

For the past several months, the Young County Commissioners Court has been meeting to arrange the budget for the fiscal year 2026. The court took another step towards that by voting to set elected official salaries.

This critical step took place at their weekly meeting Monday, July 28. The main discussion surrounding elected official salaries was the potential of giving raises to all employees in the county.

This idea was originally proposed by Young County Judge Win Graham in their first official budget workshop Monday, June 2. This idea was viewed in favor by the other commissioners as well as county auditor Cheryl Roberts.

“All the salaries (for Young County employees) have a 3% increase in the salary itself, and on the county judge and the county attorney, the state has added additional (funds) to their supplements,” Roberts said.

Roberts went on to clarify that those additional supplements are not funded from the county. 
The commissioners court voted to publish all increases in salary for elected officials during their meeting Monday, June 23.

In the court’s public document, it showed a total of $23,205 went toward salary increases of elected officials for the fiscal year 2026. These increases were made up of the proposed increase as well as a longevity bonus of $60 which was given to nine officials.

The salary increases also varied in value. The highest salary increases, from the county, went to Young County Sheriff Travis Babcock and Judge Graham with a $2,423 increase and a $1,755 increase respectively.

The lowest increases went to Precinct 1 Constable Bryan Little at $55 and Precinct 3 Commissioner Alan Craig at $737.

Amongst the rest of the officials, the most common range of increases were between $1,687 and $1,747.

However, factoring in the state supplement increases for the county judge and county prosecutor of 25%, the total amount going towards increased salaries was finalized at $39,205.

The budget schedule stated that elected officials will be notified of their set salaries by letter from Judge Graham following the July 28 meeting. After this officials have until Saturday, Aug. 2, to file any grievances on their set salaries. However, Roberts said she doesn’t expect much of that to be the case.

“I think it’s very generous to at least have a raise in these times,” Roberts said.

With elected officials salaries set, the next step for the county will be voting to set a tax rate in collaboration with the Young Central Appraisal District.