Public Hearing To Discuss Budget At Tonight's Middletown Workshop Meeting

One of the items on the agenda at tonight's Middletown Township workshop meeting that will be held at Town Hall@ 8PM, will the public hearing on the 2011 proposed Township Budget that was introduced last month.

I am hoping to be at tonight's meeting but I don't know if can will make it. I am curious to know exaclty how much the SOA (Superiors Officers' Association) and PBA union contract settlements have saved Middletown. I would like to know the cost to the Township per individual plan and per family plan of its cadillac employee health plan and then the same for the Township's HMO employees health care plan, so that it can be figured out approximately how much the Township will be saving based on these settled contracts. It has been reported that if union members wish to remain in the Township's health plan, members would have to contribute 25% of the cost, whereas if union members opt out of the cadillac plan into the HMO, members would contribute 1.5% of their salaries for health coverage. So it should be easy enough to figure out savings if the numbers are supplied.

Also based on details about the contracts and information released about the layoffs that effect the Department of Parks and Recreation, I believe several people have decided retired instead of being laid off. I am wondering how these retirements have affected the budget? Seeing how the Township is using $3.5M in surplus funds to pay off tax appeals this year instead of bonding for the funds, this budget is only holding $500K in reserve. These retirements are bound to eat into the remaining surplus which would leave the township dangerously close to running out of money by years end.