A yes….the “benefits” part of “salaries and benefits” that Ryan and Finley constantly ignore when begging for salary raises of 5% every year and crying poor.
Finley deGraffenreid: “Hey, we HAVE to give these poor people a 5% raise to keep up with inflation!”
Also Finley: “What’s that? They are ALREADY avoiding a huge dose of 13% inflation in health insurance (a major cost for most people in the real world) because they are covered by the City? Yeah, I don’t count that.”
According to City Finance Director Moreno:
“The City has received its annual renewal rates from Scott & White Health Plan for FY 2023/2024. The proposed rate is 13% higher than the current rate.”
Hey wait! the democrats commies keep telling me the inflation rate is only 3%! Which is very weird because the bastards at Progressive just hiked my auto rate this week by 21% despite ZERO accidents ever and no tickets in over 25 years!
Just to give you a sample of some of the new and old rates taken from Moreno’s numbers (page 9):
Old rates for 2022/2023: employee insurance costs $1,348.69 [City pays $969.61 and employee pays $398.88]
New rates for 2023/2024: employee insurance costs $1,548.58 [City pays $1,110.32 and employee pays $438.26]
You’ll notice from the numbers given, that the “employee” portion only goes up 10% while the “CITY” portion goes up 14.6%. The entire rate jumps $200 a month but the City (meaning YOU, the taxpayer) covers $160 of that increase while the employee only covers $40.
Very cool deal to only pay $438 a month for insurance worth $1,548 a month. That benefit is worth $13,320 to the employee – and they probably don’t even realize or appreciate it.
But remember: this is to be IGNORED during discussions about City employee compensation over the next few weeks.
I wonder if the City ever shops around for better rates – or if it’s like the garbage contract: just keep it because they are too lazy to do the legwork of comparing other providers. Shopping around for better rates on everything sounds like the perfect job for an assistant City Manager being paid $116,000 per year.
Also, maybe you should all refresh your memories on the very generous PTO policies of the City – very generous indeed:
City Personnel Policy Changes: Mo Money…Lotsa Paid Time Off.
P.S. Employees also get Vision and Dental. The Dental premiums will go up 5% and vision unchanged.
P.P.S. – Employees also get a 2-1 match on retirement contributions. If Finley/Ryan/Stacey/Monica etc contributes $7,000, the City then chips in $14,000 from the taxpayer. That way, $7,000 becomes $21,000. But that pension is received in the future – so THAT benefit doesn’t really count either, right?