Legislative Services

County official salary information is a frequently requested item at the Texas Association of Counties. In most cases, these requests originate from a county person, typically either an elected or appointed official, although often the person is from a county human resources department.

To ensure salary data is accessible to members, TAC produces a biennial report available in PDF and as an MS Excel spreadsheet. Both publications are posted on the TAC website, along with a list of any changes received after the initial publication. Counties sometimes submit corrections after TAC has made printed copies available, which are then incorporated on the website reports.

The most recent publications online, both PDF and spreadsheet, are from the 2022 TAC Salary Survey. The 2024 survey is planned for posting in May to help counties during budget season.

The 2024 TAC Salary Survey form was mailed to counties earlier this month. The survey is generally sent to the county treasurer, the county auditor or to the human resources director. This year, TAC also mailed the survey to nine county judges, two personnel departments and three budget offices.

In addition to the printed survey form, instructions and a cover letter with a short URL were included. Accessing the URL allows counties to respond electronically by downloading an MS Excel workbook that includes both the survey form and the instructions. Use of the electronic survey form is often preferred because it can be easily emailed and accessed, thereby reducing the possibility of data entry errors.

For the elected county officials and county auditors, we request five basic pieces of data.

1. Base annual salary without inclusion of any of the following items.
2. Supplemental salaries, including state supplements such as the juvenile board salary supplement received by some county judges.
3. Annual travel allowance for the individual officer only. The amount should exclude the car allowance, if any.
4. Annual car allowance only, not including the travel allowance, if any.
5. Vehicle furnished. Whereas actual amounts are requested for the first four items, it is only necessary to respond yes or no to the question of whether the county furnishes a vehicle to the officer/office.

In addition, data is collected on a few basic questions such as the county budget (minus certain funds found in some, but not all, counties), the number of budgeted employees (technically the number of budgeted full-time equivalents, or FTEs), plus contact information should there be any questions about the completed survey form.

For more information about the salary survey, please contact Tim Brown.