Most elected county official's minimum pay is set by the state. However the state provides no funding for any of those salaries. The pay is based on the county's population the greater the population the higher the pay. Loudon County is a class 4 county. Population 35,000-49,999. The state sets the minimum salary but county commission can pay a higher salary than the minimum.

While the state does set a minimum salary for most elected officials, there are no specific penalties if local government doesn't meet those minimums.

The state minimum pay for:

County Mayor - $75,048.00
Sheriff - $71,475.00

Currently both the Loudon County Mayor and Sheriff  make more than the state require minimum due to a bit of a fluke from many years ago. State law requires that if the county jail is designated as a workhouse, the sheriff should be paid an additional 5% above the minimum. A long time ago, back in the seventies, during a previous administration the county took the first steps to make the Loudon County jail a qualified workhouse. Unfortunately, the necessary requirements were never completed to qualify the jail as a workhouse. But the sheriff's pay was increased by the 5% in anticipation of the jail qualifying as a workhouse and the pay has continued to carry the additional 5% for all these many years.

The state law also requires that the county mayor’s compensation shall be at least 5% higher than the highest salary paid to any other county constitutional officer. Since the sheriff's salary is 5% higher than the minimum, that requires the mayor's salary to also be 5% higher. Current County Mayor, Estelle Heron's salary is $80,210.00. Sheriff Tim Guider's salary is 76,390.00. That's an increase from last year of $1,182.00 and $1,125.00 respectively.

The state minimum pay for:

Highway Superintendent - $71,475.00

Current Highway Superintendent, Eddie Simpson, is paid $76,390.00. That's an increase of $1,125.00 from last year. As stated above, commission does have the authority to pay more than the state minimum. Commissioners have for several years paid the Highway Superintendent the same as the sheriff.

The state minimum pay for:

Current Trustee George Miller, Circuit/General Court Clerk Lisa Niles, County Court Clerk Darlene Russell, Register Of Deeds Tracie Littleton and Property Assessor Mike Campbell.

The minimum pay for what is know as fee officers as listed above is $64,977.00. That's an increase of $1,023.00 from last year.

County commissioner's pay is set by commissioners themselves. The state does set a minimum pay of $30 for each day's attendance at meetings of the county commission. In 2007 Loudon County commissioner adopted a resolution to set their annual compensation at 10% of the mayor's salary. Each commissioner has been being paid $7,902.00 per year or $658.50 per month regardless of the number of meetings attended.

In the newest budget, it was recommended that commissioner's pay be cut in half. However, that was changed the night of the budget meeting. It was decided to leave the current compensation in place till the next workshop when commissioners would discuss how much if any to reduce their pay. If commissioners decide not to make any changes in their compensation and leave it as is, based on the mayor's salary, commissioners will receive a raise commensurate to the mayor's salary increase.

School board members are paid $300.00 per month or $3,600.00 per year. School board members compensation is also set by county commission. School board members did not ask for nor did they receive any increase.

Click Here For CTAS 2012-2013 County Salary Schedule