Rutherford County’s Budget and Finance Committee will put in its two cents this week in the overhaul of the county’s retiree health care plan.
The budget and Finance Committee will vote on three proposals – for new hires, active employees between ages 60 and 64, and current retirees over age 65 – at 5:30 Thursday night in the Historic Courthouse. Other groups of employees will be addressed at a later date.
The proposals passed the county’s Insurance Committee last month and must still pass the full Rutherford County Board of Commissioners to become policy.
If the commission approves all three proposals, they could result in more than $28.4 million in savings for the county over the next 10 years.
Before now, the county funded retiree health care on a pay-as-you-go basis at a cost of $2 million per year. But now they must pay for current and future retirees on an annual basis, much like how the county funds its pension plan.
In order to fund retiree health benefits at the current level and save for future retirees, the county would have to save $389,430,501 over the next 30 years, or more than $26.5 million per year.
Previously, the county proposed drastic changes last summer to retiree health care. The changes were met with a denial from Rutherford County’s Insurance Committee, which sent the proposal back to a subcommittee.
Current and retired county employees were outraged when the county announced its plans to overhaul the retiree health plan, brought about by recent changes to accounting policies that require governments to project retiree health benefit costs and record the liability on a yearly basis. This new requirement is forcing many governments to reevaluate retiree health coverage.
But retired Rutherford County employees are now happy with the new proposals, calling them a good compromise.
Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com. |
Email
Print
Facebook
StumbleUpon
Google
Yahoo!