May 16, 2003: Larsen Health Insurance Cost Hike

Ocean County Politics .com

Larsen, Self Styled Finance “Expert”, Says Township Still Faces “Shortfall”

Richard Larsen

Township Committeeman Belatedly Says Budget Expenses Still “Need To Be Cut”; Also Cites Need To Find New Revenue Sources, “No Matter How Wild It Is”

Larsen, Billed In Campaign Literature As “The Accountant”, Describes As “Good News” Another Huge Increase In Health Insurance Costs, But Never Says A Word About Keeping Promises He Made Months Ago To Be “Proactive” About Cost Cutting

Dover Township: Finance Liaison Committeeman Richard Larsen, newest member of the committee and a “certified” Public Accountant, was sworn in nearly five months ago in the wake of promises to be “proactive” about cutting expenses for the next fiscal year budget.

The current township fiscal year budget (July 1, 2002 - June 30, 2003, adopted only a few weeks before the November, 2002 election, mandated a record spending increase for operations of nearly $5 million and a shaky reserve base shored up by a couple of one shot revenue injections to avoid a tax increase.

Inflation Was 1.3%, But Some Current Budget
Categories Were Up 7% To 20%

The inflation rate was about 1.3%, but several budget categories were up from 7% to 20%, or six to 16 times the rate of inflation.

Total spending in the police budget alone was up from $13.7 million to $15.1 million, an increase of more than 10%, not including health insurance costs.

The biggest spending increase in the current budget was for health insurance costs for township employees, a category which rose more than 20%, an increase of more than $1.1 million, from $4.9 million to $6 million.

There were plenty of targets for Larsen, especially the Health Insurance cost disaster, a boondoggle that has been developing over the past ten years, since the township left the state health insurance plan, ostensibly to “save money”.

Twp. Pays $12,500 For “Family” Policy,
Compared With $10,000 At The DMUA

The township currently pays more than $12,500 for a “family” health insurance plan under a special contract with Blue Cross-Blue Shield, while the Dover Municipal Utilities Authority, in the state plan, pays about $10,000, nearly $2500 less for essentially the same coverage.

The township has more than 550 employees, so it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the possibilities for saving money instead of throwing it away.

But Larsen, despite his pledge to “explore every possibility”, apparently never lifted a finger to look at the biggest cost problem of all, something that could have been resolved by being only a fraction as “proactive” as he promised to be back in January.

Larsen Says Huge Health Insurance Cost Increase Is “Good News”

At Wednesday’s kickoff budget workshop for 2003, Finance Liaison Larsen announced as “good news” the inspiring revelation that health insurance costs were “only” going up by 9% for the new policy year beginning July 1, instead of the 20% they went up last year.

A 9% increase in health insurance costs would be about $570,000, equivalent to about one point in the township tax rate.

If Larsen had initiated arrangements for the township to return to the state health insurance plan, like the DMUA and numerous other Ocean County communities, could the difference of $1500 to $2500 per employee policy be translated into significant savings? Probably.

We May Never Know If Big Savings Could Have Been Realized

But we may never know, because Larsen the accountant apparently never even tried, and now the new July 1 health insurance policy fiscal year starting date is only a few weeks away, leaving very little time to get things started.

Much, much more on this and related issues on OceanCountyPolitics as the great budget debate (brawl?) for fiscal year budget 2003-2004 grates forward.