The St. Joseph County Council Tuesday night passed a balanced budget for next year. The council’s debate on the budget focused largely on a pay raise for the county’s economic development director.
The council approved the budget 5-4 with Republican President Dan Schaetzle voting with the four Democrats.
County economic development director Bill Schalliol’s $120,000 salary, now close to the $117,000 average for his counterparts around the state, would rise to $150,000. Republicans said they opposed that in a year when county employees won’t get a raise because of the property tax cuts passed this year by the Indiana General Assembly.
But Schaetzle said Schalliol has proven to be well above average by helping to land big projects, like the Amazon and Microsoft data centers, and the GM battery plant.
“He has brought in over $20 billion of investment, businesses that will pay taxes that replace our property taxes so that county services, such as roads and bridge repair, health services, police and prosecutor duties, and other key components of county government, do not have to be cut," Schaetzle said.
