Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett says he plans to block a proposal that calls for raising his pay and the compensation of some Marion County officials.
City-County Council President Vop Osili has authored a proposal to elevate the Indianapolis mayor’s annual salary from $95,000 to $125,000—a 31% increase—as well as increase salaries for seven other elected positions. Those raises would begin in 2025 under the proposal.
The third-term mayor said in a statement Tuesday that he would veto the proposal if it hits his desk with the mayoral salary increase intact, citing his “consistent position” that he will “never accept a pay raise as mayor.”
“Contrary to recent reporting, I have always been, and remain, assiduously against any pay raise for myself,” he said. “I want to make it abundantly clear: if a proposal for salary increases for other elected officials reaches my desk with a pay raise for the Office of the Mayor included in that proposal, I will veto it.”
Meanwhile, the proposal, which had been slated for a vote at the City-County Council Administration and Finance Committee meeting this evening, has been pulled from the agenda. Council Chief Communications Officer Sara Hindi said additional time would be used for “consideration and refinement” of the measure.
The salary for Indianapolis mayor has not been raised since 2002, and the current rate lags mayoral compensation in nearby municipalities. Carmel, Zionsville, Noblesville and Fishers all pay mayoral salaries greater than $130,000.
If passed, the measure would elevate pay for other countywide elected officials to $92,000 a year, with some education-based exceptions. The offices are assessor, auditor, clerk, coroner, recorder, surveyor and treasurer.
Coroners without a physician’s license would be paid $46,000, and part-time unlicensed coroners would be paid $23,000.
Those offices haven’t seen raises since 2010.
Pay for elected officials has been a consistent battle through Hogsett’s time in office. Indianapolis City-County Council members made four attempts in seven years to secure a pay raise before increasing pay for councilors to about $31,075.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.
Indianapolis is major city and mayoral compensation lags significantly behind smaller cities in the state (i.e. Carmel, Noblesville, Westfield). The position should pay at least $150,000 annually. The Mayor must consider future candidates and their ability to serve while being properly compensated. If the reason not to accept an increase for himself is a personal choice, it would be beneficial to reconsider the proposal for the next mayor prior to leaving office.
If Mayor Hogsett does not want to accept the pay raise, that’s fine for him to be so noble, and he can just have the difference withheld or returned to the City Coffers until he is out of office. However, to David B’s point, to attract qualified candidates for the job, the position should be fairly compensated for the Next Mayor.
It is unfair and short sighted of Mayor Hogsett not to consider the other County Offices he is denying the opportunity for fairly compensated base salaries. If you want good government headed by qualified candidates, you need to fairly and competitively compensate them to attract candidates to leave the private sector.