Smith County commissioners have been down this road before. Using a flawed salary survey, County Judge Joel Baker has proposed using part of a $1.8 million tax hike to give across-the-board raises to elected officials.

This isn’t the way to go about it. If Baker wants to make the case for raises, he should do so, based on the realities of the East Texas economy.

Let’s look at that survey, and why it’s bogus.

When Segal Waters Consulting was brought in to conduct the study, the firm suggested a number of counties to compare with Smith County (population 200,000).

But according to the firm, Smith County officials asked that we be compared to the five biggest counties in the state – Harris, population 4.4 million; Dallas, 2.5 million; Tarrant, 1.9 million; Bexar, 1.8 million; and Travis, 1.8 million. These are also some of the biggest counties in the nation.

We were also compared to smaller counties – including tiny Henderson, population 79,000; and Navarro, population 48,000.

Why? Because sometimes county workers leave to take higher-paid jobs in bigger counties, or to take higher-level positions in smaller counties.

So what? Those are career moves, choices people are making based on what’s best for their families. That kind of turnover is natural and desirable – we want workers who are so good that other counties try to lure them away. We don’t want to address employee retention by paying salaries so high that no one ever leaves; that’s not realistic.

And certainly, we don’t have to match the higher salaries paid by, say, Harris County, which is roughly 20 times our size.

Yet based on that survey, Baker has proposed 3 percent pay raises to elected officials (and 5 percent pay raises to constables).

“Each elected official has the option to waive it,” Baker said last week. “I will waive that. You don’t want the salaries for each position to fall behind.”

But that’s disingenuous. Sure, elected officials can decline the pay hike, but it’s still on the books and in the budget.

And we’re paying for it.

Now, Baker’s proposed budget “holds the line” on the tax rate at 33 cents per $100 in property valuation. But that, too, is disingenuous.

If a taxing entity gets more revenues this year than it got last year, even using the same tax rate, it’s still a tax increase. In Smith County’s case, it’s a tax increase of $1.8 million. It’s up to the Commissioners Court to justify that tax hike to those who are being required to pay it – Smith County residents.

Those pay raises might be warranted; certainly, the new positions at the jail the proposed budget funds are needed if we are to see the savings we were promised.

But it’s up to commissioners to make that case – and not by using a salary survey that compares us to Dallas, Austin, Houston and San Antonio.

It will be difficult for business-minded citizens to embrace this process and to accept the study’s findings with any confidence.