It happened back in May of this year and it just happened again in September: City employee benefit costs exceeded a quarter of a million dollars in a single month. I expect to see this occur regularly as the new fiscal year starts:
Scott and White Health Plan: $118,776.92 [check #152959]
Texas Municipal Retirement System: $138,419.15 [check #152962]
Colonial Life and Accident: $4,311.71 [check #152926]
A grand total for the MONTH of $261,507.78. That is an annual run-rate of $3,138,093.36
Yes – that’s $3.14 million dollars per year in City employee benefits. This also doesn’t count the other many little benefits the top bananas get like a cell phone stipend and a car allowance. Ain’t government work grand??
Back in October of 2014 – a mere five years ago – this same number was $149,890. It has BALLOONED by over $111,000.00 PER MONTH. That is a nearly SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT INCREASE in 5 years….or almost 15% per year.
I’ll repeat that – City employee benefits (retirement and healthcare only) have exploded almost 15% PER YEAR for the last 5 years. And Spinley deGraffenried has the balls to complain about salaries not being high enough!
Remember this number when Spinley yammers about his nonsensical “salary studies” and how our City workers just aren’t paid enough! He says they might run off to greener pastures if they don’t get a 3% raise every single year! Of course, Spinley never does a BENEFITS study. Because THAT is where the gravy is. He ignores those numbers as if they don’t exist.
The fact is, Lampasas benefits are FAR higher than those of similar cities….a fact I have unequivocally [look it up, Monica] proved over and over again. For example, our IT Department employee insurance cost is TWENTY PERCENT HIGHER than the IT Department employee cost in Burnet County….and our retirement contribution is FIFTY-FOUR PERCENT HIGHER!!
(Pretty sure Burnet County computer network didn’t get hacked into back in August, either. Just sayin’)