Politics

Pay increase for law officers could force property tax increase

The high cost of housing in the county and a state pay raise of around 18 percent for law officers are factors in Sheriff Lowell Griffin’s request for an increase, also 18 percent, for deputies and corrections officers. [DYLAN SHEEHAN/Hendersonville Lightning]

By Bill Moss, Published: June 3, 2026

Henderson County commissioners and administrators have for years boasted about keeping the property tax rate level. Once the elected leaders set a rate in the first year after the quadrennial revaluation, it’s been their practice to lock in the rate until the next reassessment — no increase.

This may be the year they can’t hold the line.

When commissioners take up the budget this week they will confront a request for an 18% pay increase for sheriff’s deputies and jail guards. The sheriff’s proposed pay package could require a property tax increase, a drawdown of the fund balance below the county’s self-imposed minimum or substantial cuts somewhere else.

“That’ll be part of the discussion,” board Chair Bill Lapsley said last week.

Could the county fund the proposed pay package, projected to cost $4 million, without a property tax increase?

“We could but we’d have to cut somewhere. So if the board supports everything else (in the budget that’s on the table), then that’s the only alternative.”

County Manager John Mitchell presented a $227.2 million fiscal year 2026-27 budget that included a 3% across-the-board cost of living bump and kept the tax rate at 43.1 cents per $100 valuation. Since then, leaders of the state Legislature in Raleigh have announced a deal on a budget that delivers a big pay raise to law enforcement agencies.

“One of the things that’s going on in the background is we’re very cognizant of what’s going on in the state,” Mitchell told commissioners. “Apparently, there’s an agreement between the House and the Senate for a 17½ percent increase for law enforcement agencies. We’re in a competitive environment.”

Sheriff Lowell Griffin has been meeting with commissioners to explain his proposed pay package and need for an increase in order to recruit and retain deputies.

“There are numerous pay classifications in the study,” Mitchell explained in an interview this week. Pay raises would vary based on advanced training or special certifications, for instance, and on seniority.

“As an average it’s about 18 percent,” he said. “However, some (percent increases) in the range are high and some in the range are considerably lower.”

Lowering the county’s self-imposed minimum reserves from 12% to 10% would free up roughly $4 million. (State law requires local government to set aside at least 8 percent of its general fund in a rainy-day account.) A penny increase of the property tax raises about $2½ million.

Asked about what effect the state pay raises and sheriff’s office increase would have on other county departments, Mitchell said, “It puts pressure on everybody that works for the county.”

“One of the things about county government is all the work that gets done is critical — animal control or septic inspection, social services, the folks at the health department,” he said.

What’s different about law officers, he added, is that their job requires a quick response.

“If there’s an emergency you don’t want to be calling sheriff’s deputies who are off duty living in Greenville,” he said. “One of the lessons of the storm (Helene) is if you have sheriff’s deputies living in the community, you have law-and-order in those places.”

30 years ago, ‘everybody was local’

During a budget presentation on May 20, Griffin made a strong pitch for the pay increases. Commissioners will hear about pay for county employees as they adopt the first budget that begins paying for the $170 million courthouse-jail expansion.

“If we’re going to invest in anything in this county, we have to continue to invest in our people,” Griffin said. “Without the people, there’s no use to have the buildings, there’s no use in having the equipment.

“When you look at the growth rate of Henderson County, when you look at the type of cases that we’re seeing, I think it shows you that really we are blessed to have some of the best of the best here. But there’s a challenge associated with that,” he said. “When you look at housing in this area, it’s just extraordinary. You can drop off the mountain into another state or go a couple of counties over and find housing that is far cheaper than what’s offered here in Henderson County, to purchase or to rent.”

When sheriff’s deputies are forced to live outside the county, they lose a visceral connection.

“When I started here over 30 years ago, everybody was local, everybody had local ties, everybody had buy-in, and that’s not the case anymore,” said Griffin, a multi-generation native of Edneyville. “What we’re beginning to see is openings that we can’t fill, and it’s because there’s fewer people wanting to get in the profession of law enforcement.”

Pay increases proposed in Greenville County, South Carolina, and the Legislature’s big increase for law officers raises the competition.

Sheriff’s deputies “that are in great physical shape and would definitely qualify — they could walk out of the sheriff’s office and probably qualify towards being close to that master trooper pay with the Highway Patrol, or they could walk into Greenville County and look at accelerating their income, and at the same time find lower (cost) housing.”

The high cost of housing in the county is rippling across the economy, Commissioner Rebecca McCall said.

“This is happening everywhere. It’s not just your employees, it’s not just the school’s employees. It’s hospital employees, it’s the people who work in the factories, it’s everywhere,” she said. “If you and I hadn’t inherited family land, we wouldn’t be able to afford to live here.”

“Amen,” Griffin responded.

Three fire districts getting tax increases

In Fletcher, new multistory apartment buildings mean potential calls requiring Fletcher Fire & Rescue to send its ladder truck. Mountain Home is adding three firefighters and Saluda is adding one.

Those three rural fire districts are the only ones of Henderson County’s 12 departments to ask for a property tax increase.

“It’s surprising to me but only three requested it,” county Fire Marshal Glen Gillette told commissioners. “I think the other nine — every single one of them could have justified a request with the increase in call volume and increased need for staffing.”

The county’s Fire and Rescue Advisory Committee reviewed and endorsed all three requested increases: Fletcher, 1.5 cents, taking it to 12 cents; Mountain Home, 1-cent, to 12.5 cents; and Saluda, 2 cents, to 14 cents.

In the Fletcher fire district “I can count about 15 three-story apartment buildings that are being built right now,” Gillette said. “So that’s a significant need to staff their ladder truck. So with this cent-and-a-half increase that they’re requesting, they are going to increase their staffing.”

In the past, Fletcher managed to find extra money in its budget through salary lapse.

“For the first time in a while, Fletcher is dealing with a great problem: They’re fully staffed. They’re making leaps and bounds in the right direction,” Gillette said. “So with Fletcher, they’re going to hire an additional person per shift to try and get to 13 firefighters on duty every day.”

Mountain Home Fire & Rescue is requesting a 1-cent increase to add three additional firefighters.

Saluda’s situation is more complicated. The department is funded by Polk County, the town of Saluda and Henderson County. A 2-cent increase would mean the Henderson County part of the fire district would pay the same as the Saluda taxpayers. Saluda also plans to add a third fulltime firefighter.

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The Board of Commissioners will convene a public hearing on the FY 2026-27 budget at 3 p.m. Wednesday, June 3, in the second floor meeting room of the Historic Courthouse.