COEUR d'ALENE - Kootenai County has completed a market survey on employee pay, and elected officials on Wednesday discussed potential pay raises as great as 8 percent.

An 8 percent pay increase for fiscal year 2016 would cost $2.6 million, according to the Kootenai County Clerk's Office. Increases of 4 percent or 5 percent also are options, costing between $1.3 million and $1.6 million.

Now the board of county commissioners will need to make a decision.

"There are still a lot of numbers we have to look through before we know where we're going to be," Kootenai County Commission Chairman David Stewart said during a meeting of the county's elected officials.

"Whatever is applied would be best applied in a general sense," said County Assessor Mike McDowell. "Whatever percentage it might be."

A majority of the board of county commissioners sought a new market survey earlier this year and hired a contractor to make it happen.

Government employee pay for Spokane and Bonner counties, the cities of Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, Spokane, Hayden and Rathdrum was surveyed for the market comparison. Idaho and Washington state employee pay was also used.

The survey contractor matched between 40 and 50 jobs in the defined market area, and Kootenai County paid on average approximately 19 percent below the market.

The county pay increases now under consideration would not be for Kootenai County Sheriff's Office patrol deputies and command staff. They were given raises earlier this year.

"To the extent that the sheriff's office employees get increases over and above what the rest of the county employees are deemed to be deserving - to me that's where the hard decisions get to be made," said County Prosecutor Barry McHugh.

"I'm not prepared to give all the other employees an 8 percent raise," said Commissioner Dan Green. The county doesn't "have that money."

The county can barely cover the raises for sheriff's office employees and maintain medical insurance levels for county employees, Green said.

"We'll eat up our 3 percent taxing authority," Green said in an interview after Wednesday's meeting. "I don't even like raising taxes 3 percent."

A market survey was done in 2013, though the survey market was different that time. Pay went up then as a result of the survey.

Green opposed having another survey done. He also opposed changing the comparison cities and counties.

"You're bringing into question both (surveys) - the previous one and the current one - as to which one is right," Green said.

In 2013, the county's pay ranges slid upward, increasing the pay of some employees. In 2014, employees were positioned within the new pay ranges at the "percentage of market" they had been in the previous ranges.

More than 60 percent of the county's budget consists of employee compensation, Green said.

No date was set for a commission vote on the proposed raises.