{Charleston, West Virginia}...West Virginia legislators have rejected a plan to raise county elected officials' salaries and a request to allow some judges to take home a few thousand dollars more a year. County officials lobbied for raises that would have given $10,000 more to commissioners, $13,000 more to sheriffs, $15,000 more to circuit and county clerks, $10,000 more to assessors and $12,000 more to prosecutors. The money for the raises would have come out of the county budget, not the state. West Virginia Association of Counties Executive Director Patti Hamilton says their last pay raises passed in the election year of 2006. The other bill would have changed the take-home pay for some state judges, Currently, 47 of the state's sitting circuit court judges and two of the five sitting Supreme Court justices pay 10.5 percent of their salaries into the judicial pension plan. The bill would have reduced that figure to as little as 7 percent, because the pension plan is currently over-funded. Senate Finance Chairman Roman Prezioso, D-Marion, said raises for the county elected officials and pension change for the judges hadn't moved in either the House or Senate which both determined this year isn't the year to do pay raises.
