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January 10, 2009

Essex County keeps insurance buyouts

By LOHR McKINSTRY

ELIZABETHTOWN -- Cash buyouts for Essex County workers who don't take health insurance may be controversial, but the program has value, county officials say.

Essex County has 81 out of 523 eligible employees who accept either a buyout of $3,000 for not taking individual-plan medical insurance or $5,000 for not taking the family plan.

Some county lawmakers wanted to eliminate the buyout for members of the County Board of Supervisors, but County Attorney Daniel Manning III said the county can't single out one class of employees.

"You can't treat some employees differently than others when you're offering a benefit. This local (buyout) law basically mimics what our policy has been. You can certainly change it."

He said Section 92a of state general municipal law regulates the procedure. The county passed a local law this month that formally establishes the buyouts.

"I don't think the supervisors should be singled out," Manning said.

The buyout has been successful at actually keeping insurance costs lower, County Manager Daniel Palmer said, because some workers take it instead of the more expensive county-subsidized health plan.

"If it's not available, you're going to come back here and take the health insurance. The buyout is a pretty valuable tool for the county to use."

He said that if the buyout were eliminated, there would be no incentive against taking both the county insurance and that offered by a spouse's employer.

"You could have supervisors taking health insurance both places. We had too many people (before) who were taking both plans as a safety net."

Supervisor Daniel Connell (D-Westport) has expensive retirement-plan health insurance and uses the buyout money to pay for it.

"Without the buyout, I'd be foolish not to come to the county and take the health insurance," Connell said.

He said the county should study the issue but be careful about simply ending buyouts.

"We really need to be careful how we structure this, or it's going to cost the Essex County taxpayers more money."

Removing elected officials from buyout eligibility assumes they're doing something wrong, Supervisor Ronald Jackson (R-Essex) said.

"You're basing it on shaky ground to assume everyone is double-dipping."

Supervisor Randy Douglas (D-Jay) said people look out for what's best for their families.

"I think that's what happening. This affects anybody who works for state, town or county government. It's more wide ranging than the supervisors."

He takes a $2,000 insurance buyout from the Town of Jay.

"It's put colleague against colleague," Douglas said. "We're playing within the rules."

Supervisor Thomas Scozzafava (R-Moriah) said he was glad the issue generated positive discussion.

"I just think we should look into it."

lmckinstry@pressrepublican.com

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