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Troup County employees should be getting their upcoming raises a bit early.

The Troup County Board of Commissioners approved a measure to allow all county employees to start receiving their promised cost-of-living raises in October rather than after the start of the year in January.

A 5 percent cost-of-living increase to all county employees was included in the 2024-2025 budget but the raises were set to start after the beginning of the new year. 

The budget amendment will allow the county to start the raises three months early.

County Manager Eric Mosley recommended starting the increase to employees’ paychecks earlier during the commissioner’s meeting on Tuesday to help with increasing costs due to inflation.

Mosley said everything has been worked out with human resources and payroll so that employees should be able to receive the increase on their Oct. 3 paychecks.

“I’m sure our employees will appreciate that,” said Commission Chairman Patrick Crews.

In other business, the commissioners held a public hearing for the 2024 Capital Improvement Element (CIE) Annual Update.

The annual hearing is a required part of the county’s comprehensive plan, which is designed to outline and prioritize public facility projects needed to support future growth and development. 

The annual update of the capital improvement element allows an opportunity to review and revise the plan to reflect changes in community needs, projects, priorities and available funding.

However, for Troup County, the update is mostly a formality as the county does not impose impact fees. Impact fees are financial charges imposed on new development projects to help fund infrastructure, parks, water, transportation or similar expenses.

Troup County has never imposed impact fees and sets them at $0 as part of its comprehensive plan.

Because of the nature of the potential fees, multiple public hearings are required but the issue rarely, if ever, causes discussion from the public due to the $0 fees.

The commissioners can approve the CIE update as early as the Sep. 17 meeting.