To the editor:

On Dec. 19, county commissioners gave themselves a 50 percent pay increase. This is wrong! We must have stupid stamped on our foreheads to let our elected officials set their own salaries. Their salary should be based on what the county can afford and the results of their performance evaluations. Can Douglas County afford this increase? It makes no difference; if more money is needed, taxes will just be raised. Their next performance evaluation should be done at the voting polls. It is our money that is being spent.

Now they talk about what other counties pay their commissioners and the amount of time they have to spend on commission issues. This is funny; when they ran for office, they never mentioned money or the amount of time the part-time job takes. They did talk about making Douglas County a better place to live. Now it seems they were leaving something out of their campaign speeches. This is what makes people distrust elected officials.

With people having trouble making ends meet and trouble buying medicine, and seniors are just trying to keep their heads above water, this increase in salary for a part-time job is just wrong.

Gee, I should not complain. I did get a 3.3 percent increase in Social Security, which covers the increase in Medicare.

Scott Henderson,

Lawrence