Carbon County retirees will soon see a little extra in their monthly pension checks.

On Thursday, the county retirement board voted to issue a cost-of-living increase for the 337 county retirees, but were a little disappointed with the small amount they were only able to give based on the law.In 2017, the average cost-of-living increase for retirees receiving an average of $952 a month will be $2.86 before taxes."It's not a heck of a lot," Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard said."But we made a commitment that as soon as we were allowed to give a cost-of-living raise, we would do that. It is certainly not what we were hoping for."Robert Crampsie, county controller and secretary to the retirement board, agreed, and explained that the minuscule bump in pay is based on the Consumer Price Index, set by the federal government, which was 0.3 percent this year.He explained that based on the CPI as well as the new legislation that came down regarding cost-of-living increases this year, the county could only give the three-tenths of 1 percent as a raise and isn't allowed to give more."At first when I saw that, I questioned the validity in granting a cost-of-living raise because the amount is so minimal," Crampsie said."But the more I thought about it and talked to my board members individually, I think there is a feeling that we've been waiting and waiting, anticipating the change in the law, and we've been telling retirees that once it takes place, we were going to give it a good look and hopefully be able to do something. We can do something."However, we are restricted by the law that we can only give it based on the change of the consumer price index.""It's a shame the CPI isn't higher so that the retirees couldn't get a little bit more money," Commissioner William O'Gurek said."We've been hearing from retirees for years," Commissioners' Chairman Wayne Nothstein said. "It's been how long since we granted a cost-of-living increase?"Crampsie said that the last time the county gave an increase was in 2011, but chose to forgo the raises after that because of the former legislation, which would have cost the county millions to do instead of the $97,159 that it will in 2017.Last year, the CPI was 0, meaning no increase could be considered, Crampsie said, adding that two years ago, before the new legislation was passed to allow counties to not have to give increases retroactively back to the last increase, a cost-of-living increase would have cost the county $2.5 million.In other retiree matters, the Carbon County Retirement Board is increasing the interest rates on member accounts.During the meeting, officials voted to set the 2017 interest rate on members' accounts at 5.5 percent, the same as it was in 2016.Before the vote, Crampsie explained that by law, counties are required to set the interest rate between 4 and 5.5 percent.From 1992 to 2009, the county set the interest rate at 5.5 percent.When the economy took a hit in 2008 and the county started seeing big annual required contribution payments into the retirement fund, the interest rate steadily dropped down to 4 percent.In 2015, the retirement board voted to increase the rate back up to 5.5 percent because the fund was performing well.