Beech Tree News Network

The members of the Butler County Fiscal Court had a special called meeting on Tuesday night. The meeting was held in the auxiliary court chambers behind the County Judge Executive’s office. The agenda for the session included employee insurance, the personnel policy, and an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2012-13 budget.

Insurance issues were first up for the squires. Kelly Harding and Gina Tynes representing Hocker Family Insurance spoke about insurance rates. The court had approved an insurance package for employee health insurance last month, but changes needed to be made. The revision concerns the amount of the employees annual contribution. Expected changes in the county’s number of enrolled employees and cost concerns meant a 30% employee contribution was needed compared to the 20% that was originally planned.

Harding explained that the new policy was exactly the same in terms of coverage as the old one, and was still an Anthem plan. The employee annual contribution will now total $153,199.19 compared to the original figure of $110,158.04. First district magistrate Stevie Givens moved to accept the plan with 30% employee contributions, and second district magistrate Johnny Tuck seconded. The measure passed 4-1 with the dissenting vote cast by fourth district magistrate David Whittinghill.

Next the court again spoke with Harding and Hocker concerning insurance. This time at issue was language in the county’s personnel policy that needs to be changed to reflect changes in insurance coverage. From now on the spouses of new hires and newly elected officials will be required to use their employer’s health insurance as their primary policy if it is offered. Any coverage from the county would only activate in the event of a catastrophic illness which exhausted primary coverage.

Judge David Fields explained that the change was aimed at heading off problems in the future and will also help control health insurance costs. It was made clear that the change only affects the spouse of the employee and not dependents. Also the insured employee would have the option of purchasing spousal coverage if they were willing to pay 100% of the premium.

David Whittinghill moved to accept the change to the policy with third district magistrate Chad Tyree seconding and it passed 5-0. Passing the motion counts as the first reading of the legislation. Kelly Harding said he would check with Kentucky Association of Counties (KACO) about exact wording and would report back to the court for the second reading.

The final item on the special agenda was an amendment to the county’s budget for Fiscal Year 2012-13. No action was formally taken, but magistrates were presented with options for the budget. Judge Fields has proposed that fire department funding be cut back to $5,000 per department, the rate that was the norm until the last two budget cycles. The last two county budgets were able to support $10,000 contributions to each department. Fields said that the county has great fire protection and that he feels like it will not diminish if the county goes back to the standard $5,000 contribution.

Additionally Fields and magistrates discussed the proposed amount for charitable contributions be $5,000, with no increase. The Soil Conservation District will also revert to their standard allotment of $25,000, down from the $35,000 offered in the last two budgets.

Judge Fields was quick to point out that no budget problems exist presently, but the court wants to head off potential problems for future budgets. He explained that the cuts come from high inflation and the loss of revenue. Specifically Fields mentioned the loss of jail revenue due to increased operating costs and the loss of state prisoner fees. Fields said that there was nothing Jailer Terry Fugate could do to prevent rising costs and loss of fees, that they were simply fallout from corrections reforms and blanket paroles.

Special called meetings are limited to items that are on the prepared agenda. With no other business to discuss the meeting was adjourned.

The Fiscal Court will meet again Monday night at 6 p.m. in the upstairs courtroom of the Butler County Courthouse. All meetings are public and citizens are invited and encouraged to attend.

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Joe Morris, Beech Tree News