With revenues still unknown and at least one definite increase for the 2014 Monroe County budget, there is one cost that will not increase for the county next year: the health
benefit rate. At its meeting Tuesday, the county council discussed the fringe benefit rate for employees, which is about 40 percent, meaning that the county spends 40 cents on benefits for every $1 it spends on salary, according to Monroe County Council President Geoff McKim. Monroe County’s fringe benefit rate will already see a slight increase as the Public Employee Retirement Fund rises about 1.25 percent, a mandatory increase by the state of Indiana, to 10.75 percent. However, the county can control the health care portion of the fringe rate. Council members seemed in agreement that, with the fringe rate already increasing slightly because of the retirement fund, it might be prudent for the county to continue to maintain the same health care rate for 2014, even though it may need to dip into its health care reserve fund. The health care reserve fund has about $2.6 million in it. Ryan Langley noted the fringe rate is revisited yearly, and can be increased next year if necessary. He said he didn’t think the county needed the increase just to maintain the reserves for this year. “I don’t really see any need to arbitrarily jump to break-even,” Rick Dietz said, agreeing with Langley. But Marty Hawk warned that just because the numbers seem healthy now, it does not mean they will remain that way. “We need to keep an eye on that,” Hawk said. “It doesn’t really take much to change those numbers drastically.”
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http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2013/06/26/news.county-council-begins-budget-considerations.sto
