Kendall County commissioners approved a new budget that hands themselves and other elected officials a 6.1% pay raise, along with a 4% cost-of-living increase for all county employees, in a 3-2 vote at their August 26, 2024 meeting. The lone dissenting votes came from outgoing County Judge Shane Stolarczyk and Precinct 3 Commissioner Richard Chapman, while Precinct 1 Commissioner Jennifer McCall, Precinct 2 Commissioner Andra Wisian and Precinct 4 Commissioner Chad Carpenter voted in favor.
The raises push Precinct 4 Commissioner Carpenter's salary from $93,636 to $99,329, according to reporting by San Antonio Express-News. Precinct 2's Wisian will see her pay climb from $93,636 to $99,329 as well, while Precinct 1's McCall goes from $91,800 to $97,381. Precinct 3's Chapman, despite voting against the budget, will still receive the increase, moving from $97,419 to $103,342.
County Auditor Al Auxier's salary will rise from $133,248 to $141,349 under the same 6.1% bump applied to elected officials, per the Express-News. The new budget also sets the incoming county judge's salary at $126,235, a position Stolarczyk is set to vacate on January 1, 2027. For the remainder of his current term, Stolarczyk will earn $131,355, up from his previous $123,808 salary.
Stolarczyk Points to Rising Property Values
Stolarczyk said Kendall County government could afford the employee raises because of rising property values, according to the Express-News. He supported the 4% cost-of-living raises for county employees even as he voted against the overall budget package that included the larger elected-official increases.
Carpenter had initially proposed a 3% pay increase for county employees rather than the 4% figure that ultimately passed. Carpenter said the 4% increase, combined with the county's tiered pay scale program, would be unsustainable, the Express-News reported.
A Lame-Duck Vote Amid Political Transition
Stolarczyk cast his vote as a lame-duck official after losing the Republican primary runoff for county judge to financial adviser Ricky Gleason. In the May 26, 2026 runoff, Gleason defeated the incumbent judge by 4,367 votes to 4,041 votes, a 51.9% to 48.1% margin, according to the Boerne Star. Because no Democratic candidate filed to run for Kendall County judge in the November general election, Gleason will take office January 1, 2027, regardless of the general election outcome.
This is not the first time Kendall County commissioners have voted themselves substantial raises while facing public pushback. During August 2024 budget proceedings, commissioners approved double-digit salary increases ranging from 11% to 23% for themselves, even as the county maintained an overall property tax rate of $0.3827 per $100 valuation, the Boerne Star reported at the time.
Growth and Rising Home Values Fuel the Debate
The raises come as Kendall County's population has grown by 20.3%, from 44,568 to 53,289 residents between 2020 and 2025, ranking it among the top 50 fastest-growing counties in Texas, largely driven by domestic migration, according to Community Impact. That growth has helped push up appraised property values even as the county's nominal tax rate has stayed relatively flat, dropping from $0.3827 per $100 valuation in tax years 2023 and 2024 to $0.377 for 2025, per the Kendall County Tax Assessor-Collector.
Kendall County also has an unusually high median household income of $114,962, roughly 1.5 times the Texas state median of $78,476 and the national median of $80,734, with a poverty rate of just 5%, according to U.S. Census Bureau five-year American Community Survey data cited by Census Reporter. Neighboring Boerne, the county seat, has proposed its own $163.9 million all-fund budget for fiscal year 2027 alongside a recommended property tax rate of $0.4790 per $100 valuation, according to Citizen Portal, offering a comparison point for how local governments in the area are managing growth-driven spending.
State Law Offers Officials Options to Reject Raises
Texas Local Government Code Section 152.013 requires county commissioners courts to publish notice in a newspaper of general circulation at least 10 days before voting on proposed salary increases for elected county officers, according to statutory text tracked by Justia Law. Officials who object to a raise are not without recourse: Section 152.052 allows an elected county official to file an affidavit with the county payroll officer to voluntarily reduce their own compensation, or to donate all or part of a salary increase back to the county general fund under Section 152.002, per guidance from the Texas Association of Counties.
Separately, Section 152.016 gives elected county officers who disagree with their proposed salary or personal expenses the right to request a formal hearing before a county Salary Grievance Committee before the budget is finally adopted, according to FindLaw. It remains unclear whether Stolarczyk or Chapman, the two commissioners who voted against this year's budget, plan to pursue any of these statutory options.
A Familiar Fault Line on the Commissioners Court
The 3-2 split on the budget vote echoes other recent divisions on the Kendall County Commissioners Court. In October 2025, the court split 3-2 on a contract for automated license plate reader technology, with Stolarczyk, McCall and Carpenter voting in favor while Wisian and Chapman opposed it, as Boerne's spy-cam revolt coverage detailed. That vote's alignment does not match this budget vote's factions, underscoring how commissioners have shifted sides depending on the issue at hand.
