SSALINA ON THE RECORD

Explainer · 2026-09-24

Every Office Got the Same Raise, Then It Stopped

Three years of the town's own salary resolutions, side by side — every elected office got the same raise, at the same time, then nothing changed for a year.

Line chart showing Supervisor, Town Councilor, and Town Justice salaries all rising by about 4 percent from 2023 to 2024, then holding flat into 2025 — all three lines overlap exactly
Line chart showing Supervisor, Town Councilor, and Town Justice salaries all rising by about 4 percent from 2023 to 2024, then holding flat into 2025 — all three lines overlap exactly

What the town's own records show

New York towns set officer salaries every year, by resolution, at the Town Board's organizational meeting — a public document, not a closed process. We read three years of them: 2023, 2024, and 2025.

The pattern is identical for every elected office in the town:

  • **Supervisor:** $64,056.67 (2023) → $66,618.94 (2024) → $66,618.94 (2025)
  • **Town Councilor**, each of the four ward seats paid the same: $11,218.38 → $11,667.12 → $11,667.12
  • **Town Justice**, each seat paid the same: $51,445.29 → $53,503.10 → $53,503.10

Every office rose by almost exactly 4.0% from 2023 to 2024, then was held flat into 2025. In the chart above, each office's salary is indexed to its own 2023 value — which is why all three lines trace the same path. That's not a coincidence of scale; it means every office moved by the same percentage, at the same time, which points to one board-wide cost-of-living decision rather than separate negotiations for each seat.

For comparison: appointed staff

These positions aren't elected, but they're set at the same meetings, and they moved very differently:

  • Town Clerk/Receiver of Taxes: $62,350 (2023) → $70,000 (2024) → $77,000 (2025)
  • Highway Superintendent: $84,593.60 → $87,942.40 → $92,942.00
  • Town Engineer: $48,369.15 (2024) → $64,766.89 (2025) — about a 34% increase in a single year, the largest single move found anywhere in the schedule

What we don't have yet

We were not able to locate a posted 2026 salary schedule — the town's website has 2023 through 2025 organizational meeting records posted at a consistent location, but not 2026. We've filed a Freedom of Information Law request for that year, along with a small sample of years going back to 2000, to see how this pattern holds over a longer stretch. This page will be updated when that comes back.

Sources

  • Town of Salina Organizational Meeting, January 3, 2023
  • Town of Salina Organizational Meeting, January 1, 2024
  • Salina Town Board, Regular Meeting Minutes, January 13, 2025 (contains the 2025 salary schedule)

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