Councilmen say employee’s insurance not worth penny tax

WHEATLAND – It’s time for the 1% county sales tax ordinance to be renewed. It was first was approved by Platte County voters in September of 1989 to help the county pay for services, repairs, town employee salaries and a myriad of other things. According to the recent Town of Wheatland meeting, Councilmen Bill Britz and Thane Ashenhurst don’t feel the tax is necessary anymore. They want to cut the health benefits of all the Town employees and then do away with the tax.
At the beginning of the discussion at April’s meeting, Britz asked the council, “How would you individually explain to a constituent from the Town this tax? What do you use that money for?”
Mayor Brandon Graves spoke up, “Currently one of our garbage trucks has a sign that it was paid for by the tax, the old street sweeper that we still have. I know this penny tax funds, by and large, police cars. There are a lot of things.”
Britz went on to explain that the tax brings in about $2,500,000 and the Town pays out $2,546,000 in  health care for the employees of the five communities in the county. If the county stopped paying for insurance, the tax wouldn’t be needed anymore.  
“You could simply eliminate the health care benefit and you would not have to have that tax and the people could use the money in their own pocket.,” said Britz. “It goes for nothing other than paying the benefits for the employees.”

The rising costs of insurance has concerned the council for a while and discussions about the employees contributing to their health care costs were held last September. The options that were presented were expensive and the employees were upset at the sudden threat of their benefits being slashed. Many saying they would leave and find work elsewhere as the benefits were the only reason they still worked there. They just didn’t get paid enough without that perk. Councilman Jamie Schindler mentioned that when he worked for Basin Electric he had to pay for a part of his insurance but a Town employee said that Schindler probably made a lot more money than any of the Town employees. Schindler nodded his head in agreement. At the September meeting, an agreement could not be made so the council voted to keep the benefits the same for the next year and add a “Teledoc” feature for the workers that might lower the overall costs.
“Teledoc,” is an online medical service for employees to call in for prescriptions or advice as to whether they or a family member is ill enough to go to a physical doctor. The hope was that the costs would go down if employees utilized this service.
Six months later, costs have gone up and “Teledoc” cost them even more, not less. In the budget meeting last week, employees present said they tried to use Teledoc with limited success. Difficulty using the service, limits on prescriptions and even being closed when one mother tried to call the 24/7 service surprised the council. They thought the service had been working and were frustrated to hear that something they pay for was so ineffective and asked employees to give them more feedback in the future. At the budget meeting, the employees present were amenable to the changes to the benefits suggested by the council. Their deductible will raise to $1,000 for singles and $2,000 for families along with having $75 for singles and $150 for families being deducted from their monthly paycheck. However, these payments will only cover the increase percentage projected by the insurance company for this year. It has gone up 12% over the past few years. The employees also said that if they have to pay for their insurance, they would like a say in who it is. They all expressed that their current provider, “Meritain,” is difficult to work with.
“The two individuals on this board that know something about health care and about running a business here voted no (to continue paying benefits) and it cost us money.” said Britz. “It is a valid business option to do away with insurance – you can’t disagree with it.”
“I think we’re going to have a hard time retaining employees if they don’t have benefits,” said Schindler, concerned. “I think that employee benefits is a pretty important thing to provide and if we can do so, I’d like to see us continue.”
Local government employees and leaders say the penny tax can’t be whittled down to just paying for health benefits – it does more than that.  
“The Town of Wheatland uses the Optional 1% tax funds for capital projects such as the street sweeper, police cars, trash trucks, diving boards for the swimming pool, the walking bridge at the park, the miniature golf course, and updating the movie theater bathrooms,” said Town Clerk Candy Wright. “The tax money does not go directly to employee salaries and benefits. Without the Optional 1% funds the Town of Wheatland would be unable to offer the same level of service which is expected from our tax payers.     
“Platte County uses the tax to fund all of its services, which include law enforcement, road improvements and conducting elections. Without the optional one percent sales tax, Platte County would be unable to deliver the level of service that we currently do. Our budget is already tight and without the optional 1% sales tax our county would be really strapped,” explained Platte County Clerk Malcolm Ervin. “These tax dollars help ensure we can have a qualified crew of great people whose focus is delivering the best possible service to our residents. The public should scrutinize their elected officials to make sure tax dollars are spent in the most prudent, transparent, and appropriate way possible.”
Long-time Town employee Bob Day is frustrated with how things are going.
“I’ll just go get another job (if they cancel the insurance), this is ridiculous,” explained Day. “They’ve also talked about letting go of the older employees so they can pay less salary. I started my 37th year this month so that would be me. They’re going to lose a lot of experience and knowledge.”  
Day also talked about how the Town was considering just raising their salaries so they could pay for their own insurance, but then he and others were concerned about how much their taxes would go up.
The final reading and vote of the ordinance will be at the next Town meeting scheduled for June 8. On the first reading, it passed with only Britz voting no, the second reading Ashenhurst joined in the no vote with Graves breaking the tie. Half of the municipalities of the county have to pass the ordinance to authorize the continuation of the tax. If that happens the tax continues without having to be voted on by the tax-payers.