Legislator: Double insurance pay-ins
A first-term Ulster County Legislator wants to double the percentage that elected officials and all newly hired nonunion management employees pay toward their health insurance premiums.
Joseph Maloney has sponsored a resolution to increase the amount those officials and employees pay to 20 percent of the premium cost from the 10 percent they now pay.
Maloney, I-Saugerties, said the increase would affect elected officials and newly hired employees not covered by a union contract and be on par with what newly hired union employees will pay.
“There are towns, counties and places all
over who have started lining up with what they’re demanding of their underlings,” Maloney said. “This is pretty straightforward to me.”
Employees considered nonunion management include the county’s confidential secretaries, department heads, assistant district attorneys and assistant county attorneys.
While Maloney said the higher percentage would apply only to new hires, he wants to see the change take effect as quickly as possible for elected officials, including members of the Legislature.
Currently, 16 of the 23 county legislators are covered by the county health insurance plan, according to the Legislature office. Of those participating, one has a family plan, eight have individual policies, and seven have two-person policies.
Maloney said he does not get health insurance coverage through the Legislature but is covered under the county plan because his wife is a full-time employee in the county Comptroller’s Office.
The percentage that unionized employees pay toward their health insurance policies vary depending upon when they were hired. Maloney’s wife, who was hired in 2009, is among a group of employees who pay 15 percent toward their premiums.
Ulster County Legislature Chairman Ken Ronk said there were “positives and negatives” to Maloney’s proposal, but he expressed
“We should be an example, and if this is one way we can be an example, so be it.” — Ulster County Legislature Chairman Ken Ronk
concern about the impact the change could have on the county’s ability to retain employees. Ronk said that, in many cases, nonunion management employees don’t get scheduled pay raises like union employees do, and he worried that it would be hard for the county to attract professional employees, like attorneys, who are paid far less than if they work in the private sector.
Ronk said he doesn’t have those same concerns about elected officials.
“We should be an example, and if this is one way we can be an example, so be it,” Ronk said, although he said he would oppose any change during the current legislative term.