COEUR d'ALENE - The Kootenai County commissioners voted 2-0 on Tuesday to approve a resolution setting this year's salaries for the county's nine elected officials, with raises for only two.

Only the assessor and the treasurer requested and will receive 2.47 percent raises this fiscal year.

All the other officials, including the three commissioners, chose not to accept their already budgeted raises.

Commissioner Dan Green said he respected the other officials' autonomy in recommending their own salaries.

"I'm supportive of this," Green said. "Some decided not to take the money, and potentially distribute it to other staff. Everybody works hard."

Commissioner Todd Tondee, who had been on the fence about approving the raises earlier, said he had to respect that the new budget allows raises for all the elected officials.

If the two officials' requested increases weren't approved, Tondee noted, the extra dollars would have been distributed to other staff as wage adjustments.

"It still would have been spent," he pointed out. "It's not saving taxpayers money by not putting it in."

Commissioner Jai Nelson was absent from the commissioners' Tuesday business meeting, on account of a family emergency.

Assessor Mike McDowell and Treasurer Tom Malzahn will both see their salaries bump up from $68,958 to $70,665.

McDowell, who was present for the commissioners' vote at the county administration building, praised the decision.

"I think it's very appropriate," McDowell said.

In the 2013 fiscal year budget, the commissioners had approved $1 million to be distributed as wage adjustments for all of the county's 700-plus staff.

McDowell and Malzahn had both pointed out that a prior study panel had encouraged elected officials to be given raises on par with other staff.

No county elected officials have received raises since 2007.

The other county elected officials' salaries will remain flat at: $71,080 for each commissioner; $68,958 for the clerk; $84,872 for the sheriff; $98,664 for the prosecuting attorney; and $61,535 for the coroner.

The commissioners set elected officials' salaries every year, under Idaho statute.