As you’ll see on our front page, the Platte County Salary Commission comprised of the current elected county officials voted to increase pay for officeholders by 30 percent. The raise cannot take effect until the next term of office for each elected position, per the state constitution.
Unlike in 1997 when the local salary commission made some outrageous decisions on officeholder salaries and wanted to take their pay raises effective immediately even though that’s not allowed under the Missouri Constitution, if you’re waiting for me to fire up a journalistic blast furnace about this one you’re going to be disappointed. Sure, the 30 percent raise is an eye opener and probably at least twice the percentage I would have had the testicular fortitude to humbly suggest if I were in that position, but some things have changed as far as work load for many offices in the administration building. One of the reasons for the work load increase is SB190, the extremely popular Platte County Commission-enacted Platte County senior citizens’ real property tax freeze. The clerical work/paperwork/bookkeeping load caused by that popular piece of legislation is more than the public might realize and has increased the workload on multiple offices. There is absolutely no denying that.
Think about it. Unlike the old days, the county commission has no real clerical staff left under its umbrella, those positions have been eliminated in recent years (not a bad thing). They do have a payroll person but I believe that’s it. So the workload for paper shuffling and prepping for approval process that is needed for tax freeze applications has fallen elsewhere. Also, the recent state-ordered across the board mandatory increase in assessed valuation for residential properties came very late in the tax season game and put added load on multiple offices in the building.
And keep in mind the officeholders have seen some actions from the county commissioners that do not align with the “fiscally conservative” image commissioners like to project, including last year proposing the largest tax increase in county history for a massive jail project. County commissioners were the opposite of friendly toward anyone in the building who did not jump on board their failed proposal, and that has not been forgotten. In addition, officeholders know that in the past couple years the county commission created a $200,000 per year county administrator position–a post that has been a benefit to the county, by the way, especially in terms of grants and long range planning–which is still $100,000 more than officeholders will be getting if they win another term. And, at least in the eyes of some folks in the building, the hiring of an administrator took some workload off the county commissioners.
Also, keep in mind the 30 percent increase covers four years of service in their next term. In other words, an average increase of 7.5 percent per year. Still high, but not quite as outlandish as the phrase “30 percent increase” makes it sound.
Anyway, all this is part of my initial reaction to the 30 percent hike. The above things likely played a role in the officeholders deciding to be bold with their pay raise thoughts. Sheila Palmer, county collector, spoke some well thought-out and well-intentioned reasons for making her motion. She stated them in such a way that you may have to read between the lines a bit to fully pick up what she’s putting down. You can read her comments in our front page story.
Get fired up about it if you want, I’ll print your letters if you have thoughts for or against the amount of the raise. I’m not here to stymie debate. I’m just not breathing fire about it like I was in 1997. The circumstances are not the same.
Two weeks ago we talked a bit about the NBA betting scandal. That’s the column in which I said I won’t be surprised if at some point the FBI takes a look at some questionable things with NFL games.
Since that time we’ve learned of another professional sports betting scandal, this one in Major League Baseball. Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were indicted last week for an alleged sports betting scheme where they rigged pitches for prop bets. Prosecutors claim Clase coordinated with bettors starting in 2023, and Ortiz joined in 2025, with both players receiving bribes in exchange for information or intentionally throwing certain pitches to ensure specific bet outcomes.
This is likely not the last pro sports betting scandal, only the most recent. To this point, nothing on the NFL.
After my recent column about the NBA betting mess, a judge who occasionally messages me about anything from current events to pop culture fun stuff, hit me up with some pertinent thoughts.
“You want to really see a problem before it happens, look at the NCAA proposed rule allowing college athletes to bet on pro sports. So now we will have a bunch of 18-year-olds with NIL money betting stupid amounts, ending up in debt to the mob and then they will be forced to shave points in the college games to keep both their knees,” the judge wrote.
NIL is short for name, image and likeness, for the non-sports enthusiasts in the audience.
“College kids with the first real money they have had in their lives through NIL being allowed to bet on anything is disturbing,” the judge added.
This is why I frequently mention the phrase “pizza money” sized bets when talking about sports wagers in this column. Bet with your head, not over it, sports fans.
Also, season long futures bets are the much safer way to go. Because of the long term nature of the wager, futures bets are far less susceptible to funny stuff. The bets to avoid are micro bets, such as player prop bets, which are specific to a player’s performance in a specific game. Those things can very easily be manipulated, such as by a player faking an injury to leave the game early or a player intentionally playing like ass.
Bien merecido.
A rural Kansas county has agreed to pay more than $3 million and apologize over a law enforcement raid on the small town Marion County Record newspaper. I’m sure you recall the situation. In August of 2023 the raid sparked an international outcry over press freedom.
Marion County was among multiple defendants in five federal lawsuits filed by the company that publishes the Marion County Record, its publisher, the estate of the publisher’s late mother Joan Meyer, the paper’s co-owner, employees of the paper and a former Marion City Council member whose home was also raided.
Eric Meyer, the paper’s editor and publisher, told The Associated Press he is hoping the size of the payment is large enough to discourage similar actions against news organizations in the future. “The goal isn’t to get the money. The money is symbolic,” Meyer said. “The press has basically been under assault.”
(The end. And we didn’t even get to last week’s leftovers. Next time. Email ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)
