I'll See Your Little Blue Scoops and Raise the Ante

We couldn't sleep in the heat, so we offer this tasty tidbit. It came in smokin' hot over the wires just begging to be posted. Another reader writes about their perspective recent public hearing on the proposed budget. Enjoy...

BIG Blue Scoops
There is an item that a couple people touched on at the hearing, but nobody really wants to go there. I am talking about health and dental benefits and premiums.

For those that don't know the district has an extremely nice benefit package, that most people would love to be on. In the next years budget, the total cost of these two items is approximately $9 million dollars (thats a whopping 12.5% of the budget just for those premiums). [SP-EYE note: that might be a little low. The bill for April was $870,00 for health insurance and $98,000 for dental. Do the math, people] Those of us in the real word either pay for our coverage, if it can be afforded, or we usually pay a portion of the premium and our employer picks up the rest. It is not uncommon to pay 10% or more of that premium.

So, if all employee groups paid 10% of the premium, we would be saving $900K / year, and that is a permanent savings. Now the actual amount would be less than that because the employees already pay some of the health premium (none of the dental). For example, L60 pays 9% (why do they always get the sharp stick), admin and admin support each pay 4%, and teachers pay ....... wait for it......, yes, a fixed $100 / year!! [SP-EYE Note: our copy of the current contract states that the total amount paid is either $200 or $400 per year for a family...the lower amount being paid if the employee agrees to go through a --taxpayer funded---"Health Risk Assessment. Similar, annual out of pocket for a single employee is $75 or $150 ] Yes, in the last contract, they got 3.8% raise two years in a row and did not have to give anything up, great negotiating.

So, why not put a stake in the ground, and say that all groups WILL pay 10% starting in their next contract year, not negotiable, and start your contract negotiation from there? Of course the McCourts and Shimeks of the world will immediately say that they can not do that because we will lose in arbitration, [SP-EYE note: Fear not, citizen! For at least Mr.Shimek has to abstain from any employee contractually related votes because his wife is a district employee.] but they really need to open their eyes to what is going on around them.

There is another little anomaly that this would help get rid of as well. Today, if teachers choose not to be in the plan (i.e. say their spouse has a plan with another employer), we pay them! [SP-EYE: the reader i correct. We PAY employees $300/month---$3,600/yr to NOT take the health insurance] I don't know how many of those people there are, but this practice has to stop. The logic is that if it is free (or really low cost), then they will just sign up if we do not incent them to not sign up. If they have to pay for the benefit, problem solved.

At the end of day, no one wants anything taken away, but the above is reasonable, and it would fund most of the new teachers at the new buildings this year.

---Citizen That Would Rather Keep Their Two Pizzas A Month