By GAYLE SALES
Guest columnist
May 19, 2008 11:46 pm
—
In an effort to bring some small measure of unity to a fractured political party, I wrote a column which appeared in the Tribune on Dec. 3, 2006. In it I said, “Our city faces great challenges and great opportunities in the years ahead. It is going to take the combined efforts of all of us working together in a spirit of cooperation if we are to reach our goals and ambitions for our community.” This statement is even more appropriate today than it was 18 months ago when it first appeared.
Recently Mayor Goodnight’s excellent column “Solution is clear too fix our problems,” appeared in the Perspective. While the solution is clear, it will by no means be easy. But we have a mayor who understands the problems we face and appears willing to make the tough decisions. He wrote, “The solution is clear. We need to cut our costs including our personnel costs which make up 75 percent of our budget. My job is to represent all Kokomo residents, not just those who work for the city. This could mean asking employees to pay a larger share of their health care costs.” While this statement is probably not welcome news to city workers, it certainly demonstrates leadership on the mayor’s part.
In these days of declining home values, foreclosures everywhere, sky-high gasoline prices, rising food costs and disappearing jobs, it is becoming indefensible to demand that seniors on Medicare, struggling hard-working families and workers with no health insurance pay sky-rocketing health care costs for our city employees and their dependents.
City workers deserve an adequate and affordable health care plan to protect themselves and their families. But as Mayor Goodnight said in his column “our city employees’ benefits should be more in line with their private sector colleagues and with those who are footing the bill.”
There are about 500 employees on the city health care plan and taxpayers are currently paying a whopping $17,500 a year to provide health care benefits to each employee. These costs are increasing at a rate of about 12 percent a year. If these rates of increase are allowed to continue, the cost to taxpayers will double in six years. In 2014 we will be paying nearly $35,000 for health care costs for each person employed by the City of Kokomo. This does not include salaries or other benefits, just health care. I am confident this is not the legacy Mayor Goodnight wants to leave to our city nor should anyone else. That is why working together in the spirit of cooperation I talked about earlier is so necessary to keep our community growing and fiscally strong. It is imperative that we find a new less costly approach to providing the health care and other benefits our city employees need and deserve because the current plan is unsustainable.
It is unfortunate that our council members have decided not to cooperate with the mayor in his effort to lower the city’s personnel costs in anticipation of a looming budget shortfall. Two mayors, one Republican and one Democrat, have asked our council to give up their city health insurance for the greater good of the community. Both times the answer has been no. I believe our council members are all good people, but this unwillingness to cooperate makes them appear unconcerned and self-serving. They seem to have an attitude of entitlement and are comfortable with taxpayers paying $17,500 a year for each of them who have city insurance.
Some members don’t even need city insurance. They have other insurance available to them through their employment or retirement. They take the city plan because it is a better “deal” for them, with no regard for what it costs the city.
I would like to see a little leadership from our council in this matter. It would go a long way to convince taxpayers that the council is serious about cutting costs and is willing to make sacrifices for the good of our community.
Gayle Sales lives in Kokomo.
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