By Ginny Gillikin
Sun Correspondent
A constitutional amendment that mandates increased salaries for elected county officials was approved by voters during the Nov. 5 General Election. New Mexico Constitutional Amendment 4 is also known as the County Officer Salaries Amendment. The ballot measure was approved by approximately 70% of New Mexico voters, according to the Secretary of State’s website.
The amendment edited Article 10, Section 1 of the New Mexico Constitution. It states that a county’s board of commissioners will now set county officers› salaries, rather than members of the legislature. Each county in New Mexico is a functioning governmental unit, ballotpedia.org noted.
The minutes for the Dec. 3 meeting of the McKinley County Board of Commissioners noted that “the salaries of the certain elected county officials for McKinley County are below the fair market value associated with the position, and not comparable to salaries of other county officers.”
The new salary for McKinley County’s treasurer and clerk and the District 3 commissioner will be $68,707.20, effective Jan. 1. The previous approved salary for these positions was $30,196.
“The actual payment of the increase [will be delayed] to the first pay period of July 2025 to properly account for and budget the adopted changes,” according to the meeting minutes.
The salary for District 1 and 2 commissioners will increase to $68,707.20 and the salary for probate judge will be $51,530.40, effective Jan. 1, 2027.
Passage of Amendment 4 “provides more local control to boards of county commissioners,” according to nmlegis.gov. It also “could recruit more quality candidates for county officer positions, … check the power of county commissioners in setting salaries, [and] … give voters more say in how their counties are managed.”
The amendment also “clarified that the fees collected by a county official must be deposited into the county treasury,” according to ballotpedia.org.
