April 19, 2016 - Insurance Advisory Committee meets at Town Hall in the conference room.

Mr. L. Kirby from MIIA speaks to the committee and those present.

Mr. Kirby states that the town administrator had looked into the town changing health insurance to GIC and plan design changes were proposed. Town employees did not like them so that was tabled. This is another example of employees running the show rather than management.

There is a reason that all cities and towns are suppose to be putting away money to pay retiree health insurance costs, those costs are ever increasing and no one has the funds put aside to cover all future costs. Everyone simply kicks the can down the road. Some towns have eliminated health insurance for retirees all together because they simply cannot afford it any longer.

Templeton Insurance Advisory committee is made up of town employees and a retiree. So who is looking out for the town, as in the taxpayers? The selectmen have the final say on what is offered and i suppose when selectmen maintain status quo and give employees all that they want, then those selectmen are praised. Same goes for when selectmen give out raises and labor contracts that the town cannot really afford, those selectmen are praised again. One of the things stated by Carter Terenzini while attending a meeting of Templeton Advisory Committee was that group insurance (health insurance) may come up short before the end of the fiscal year. Short, as in lack of enough funds to make required payments. He further stated that one thing that might help was leaving the fire chief position open so as to save some money and hope it evens out before the end of the year.

If retirees and town employees wish to continue to have health insurance and if town employees are interested in maintaining financial health for the corporation, changes must take place, such as the percentage split of town and employee.  Employees are going to have to pay a larger percentage so the whole ship may stay afloat.

Financial trend monitoring by the Advisory Committee has uncovered what looks like a bad practice. It looks like the collection rate for property taxes may not be as high as indicated on the tax recap sheet. Hopefully that information will be available at the next meeting of said committee on March 1.

All one has to do is to look at the spending plan presented to town meeting to see change is needed and the flow of information needs improvement. Sunshine is the answer.

posted by Jeff Bennett