TM article calls for no health insurance for elected officials

DEDHAM -- Town Meeting members will debate this spring whether to stop paying for health insurance for elected town officials.

Article 48 of the annual Town Meeting warrant asks the town to authorize the Board of Selectmen to petition the state Legislature to make elected town officials ineligible for paid medical, dental or life insurance plans.

The article is sponsored by the Finance Committee, at the request of member William Podolski.

Podolski this week estimated it costs the town $12,000 to $13,000 annually to insure individual elected officials.

"I just don’t think that the taxpayers should be footing that bill," Podolski said Monday, adding that other towns have taken similar cost-saving measures in recent years.

The article would mean no health insurance for members of the Board of Selectmen, the Board of Assessors, and the Board of Health, said Town Administrator William Keegan.

It is unclear how many of these elected officials, who are paid annual stipends, actually avail themselves of the town’s health insurance plans.

The article would not affect the elected town clerk, who would continue to be eligible for the town’s health insurance.

Dedham, like other municipalities across the commonwealth, continues to deal with rising health insurance costs.

The town is anticipating a $500,000 increase in health insurance costs next fiscal year, a 12.5 percent hike that Keegan said is consistent with the nationwide trend.

The town was able to reduce its contribution to health insurance costs during collective bargaining last year with municipal employees. which next fiscal year will save the town $450,000. By the final year of their contracts, town employees will pay 20 percent of health insurance costs, up from 10 percent prior to the agreements.

Town Meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 10, in Dedham High School.