Uhmm, that is why I researched it, and brought up what I found here, so others also understand what is going on.
For anyone interested, seems they changed it to this formula base in 1973, under Dem gov and Dem legislature-
Salaries of Elected County Constitutional Officers and School District Officials for Fiscal Year 2015-16
Summary:
The practice of determining the compensation of Florida’s county constitutional officers by state law was sanctioned by the Constitution of 1885 and has been maintained since the 1968 constitutional revision.1 However, it was not until 1973 that the Legislature authorized the salary compensation formula that was the precursor to its present form.2 Prior to that legislation, the authorization of changes to county officers’ compensation required frequent legislative action. A summary of these historical constitutional provisions and general law amendments can be found in this report’s appendix.
In expressing its intent, the Legislature determined that a uniform salary law was needed to replace the previous local law method of determining compensation, which was haphazard, preferential, inequitable, and probably unconstitutional.3 In addition, the Legislature intended to provide for uniform compensation of county officers having substantially equal duties and responsibilities and basing these uniform salary schedules on countywide population. Furthermore, in acknowledging the Legislature’s stated intent for uniformity, Florida’s Attorney General opined in 2008 that a sheriff could not voluntarily reduce his or her salary below that established by law.4 However, in 2009, the Legislature authorized district school board members and elected school superintendents to reduce their salaries on a voluntary basis.5 Furthermore, in 2011, the Legislature authorized county commissioners, clerks of circuit court, county comptrollers, sheriffs, supervisors of elections, property appraisers, and tax collectors to voluntarily reduce their salaries.6
The statutory salary provisions apply to all designated officers in all counties, except those officials whose salaries are not subject to being set by the Legislature due to the provisions of a county home rule charter, as well as those officials of counties that have a chartered consolidated form of government as provided in Chapter 67-1320, L.O.F., (i.e., Duval County).7 The adoption of a charter provides the county’s electors with a mechanism to fundamentally alter the form of county government and the status of constitutional officers.8 Salaries have been computed for all officers of charter counties and are provided for reference purposes even though the statutorily-calculated figures may not be applicable.
The current salary formula methodology specifies that the latest official population census counts or intercensal estimates for the years between decennial censuses serve as a major component of the salary computation. In addition to the population figures, the salary formula contains five other components. The base salary and group rate components for the separate officers are specified in various sections of Chapter 145, F.S., for elected county officers and Chapter 1001, F.S., for elected school district officials.9 The initial factor component is currently set in law as a constant numerical value.10 The Florida Department of Management Services (DMS) annually certifies the remaining two components, the annual factor and cumulative annual factor, used in the salary formula calculations.11 Traditionally, this annual certification has occurred in late summer, typically during the month of August or September.12
Prior to 1984, the Florida Department of Community Affairs calculated salaries for county constitutional officers; however, that authority was deleted from law during the 1984 legislative session.13 From 1985 through 2009, the former Legislative Committee on Intergovernmental Relations continued the annual salary calculations for county constitutional officers and elected school officials as a service to governmental units. Since 2010, the Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research (EDR) has made the annual calculations. Since the EDR is not required by law to perform these calculations, county government and school district officials are encouraged to independently verify the salaries of their respective elected officials.
http://edr.state.fl.us/content/local-government/reports/finsal15.pdf