As Montgomery County still battles with every increasing inflation, a quick look at the Montgomery County Charter will show you how the Council Members have guaranteed themselves the ability to keep pace with inflation much better than a majority of the county. In Sec. 1A-106. Salaries of the County Executive and Councilmembers it states:
This means that every year the salaries of the council members get adjusted to the CPI for the Washington DC area. In 2017 the salary of a Council Member was $136,258. In 2023, the salary was $161,957. This represents an increase of 18.8%. If you look at the CPI chart for the Washington DC area it will show you the rate of salary increase.
There is no provision in the charter for what happens to a Council Member salary if inflation actually decreases. Want to know why? Because inflation has not decreased in a long long time. Maybe that is coming? If so, would the Council write a new provision stopping a decrease in their salary? Anyhow, I have gotten off topic.
If you look at the per capita income for Montgomery County over this same period of time, which is the income that is received by persons from all sources, the chart looks a bit different. In 2017 it was $82,000 and rose to $93,000 in 2023, representing a 13.4% increase.
If you look at the median household income, the chart looks like this:
In 2017 it was $103,000 and rose to $118,000 in 2023, representing an increase in 12.7%.
All of this occurred under the backdrop of rising income inequality and higher unemployment.
In short, maybe it is time to tie the Council salary to an indicator other than inflation, something that better represents the actual conditions of the residents of the county. This would provide the Council members a much better perspective as they vote on increased budgets and increased utilities charges in an inflationary environment.
