Health Care & Compensation: Monroe County's Budget Week 2

Sep 12

Monroe County is halfway through the 2027 budget hearings reviewing $135m. Below are the highlights of how your dollars are being invested. In the second week, there are two main expenditures: Health Care and Personnel Compensation. You’ll also see the upcoming meetings this week as well as helpful resources.

Why does this matter to you?

The County Council are making decisions regarding $135m of your tax dollars. Below I highlight how we are making substantial investment of those dollars into the people who provide public services.

Health Care

Health care is a priority. Last Wednesday, leaders in the Monroe County Jail presented a budget where the largest non-personnel line was health care costs for those incarcerated. The proposed contractual amount with 3C for the 2027 budget is over $1.7m.

Peter asked about this major investment. Hear just how complex and important this health care issue is in the context of a county jail.

Jail health care Costs are rising. In the past five years, this line has risen by 11.61%; that’s an additional $182,151 that taxpayers pay.

Last week’s Employee Self Insurance costs made this a much broader issue. I wrote about an additional $19.8m investment in Self Insurance costs last week. It should be clear that Health Insurance is a priority for Monroe County.

This major expenditure begs questions about what degree local governments should be responsible for health care costs. Surely as we look to other nations around the world, there are systems that are better suited to negotiating costs and providing premier levels of wellness, preventative care, and treatment options for the very ill. We can do better, and it begins in the ballot box.

Personnel Compensation

Personnel costs continue to be a topic brought up in budget hearings. The largest expenditure of any budget is the expenditure in people. This year’s budget has laid bare major issues that the County Council must tackle in 2027, including pay scales, overtime, and remote access.

During multiple departmental hearings it became clear that the County’s ability to retain employees with salary is becoming outdated. As employees move away to other governmental units, the private sector, or other communities entirely, they are telling us something important that is being echoed by department heads. As we move into the next year, it must be a priority to re-evaluate the way the County compensates employees. Of course, this is of great interest to every taxpayer who relies on the public services provided by these employees.

Overtime continues to be an issue for specific categories of employees. As the County continues to encourage comp time, the budgets are telling us that these employees are racking up so much of this time that they cannot use it. There is a clear preference for overtime, but the downward pressure this causes on departmental budgets can be immense. In 2027, we must dedicate time to addressing this tension.

Lastly, secure internet access for employees who don’t work on the main downtown campus is a problem. This budget process identifies that some employees are really struggling with basic job functions for a lack of secure internet connection at their primary place of work. We must continue to balance robust security with the need of employees to complete their work in a timely manner.

Looking forward to next week

• This is a week of three budget hearings. Budget Session Five on Tuesday at 5pm will be dominated by the recent changes at the Health Department. See the resources below for more information. Budget session six will take place on Wednesday at 5pm followed by budget session seven on Thursday at 5pm

• The preliminary MUST meeting will take place on Friday at 1pm. I am deeply honored to chair this collaborative meeting to find paths forward as the state mandates that taxing units move from property tax-based revenue to income tax.

• The third item I’m working on for the coming week is levy balancing for frozen levy funds and updating non-levy funds which have a negative balance in the 4bs.