3-30-13 Middletown Township Committee Meeting - FY 2015 Budget Intro

Middletown Township introduced its FY-2015 budget Monday afternoon with a brief presentation by CFO Colleen Lapp. The Committee also adopted a resolution to amend the lease agreement with Trinity Hall at the Croydon Hall property.

I haven't had time to watch all of the video as of yet, I intend to do so shorty. I also intend to post the documents from the meeting as an update as soon as they are available.



Here is a link to Middletown's press release announcing the budget introduction




 UPDATE  ************

Here are the links to the proposed FY 2015 Municipal Budget, Solid Waste Budget and the revised Trinity Hall lease agreement documents present at last night's township meeting:

https://archive.org/details/151292015MunicipalBudgetIntroduced

https://archive.org/details/151302015SolidWasteBudgetIntroduced

https://archive.org/details/15131TrinityHallLeaseAmendment

APP: Middletown health plan tops most in cost, coverage

In following up last week's article "Middletown reduces workers hours to avoid Obamacare", the Asbury Park Press (and others) found it incredulous that the Township was cutting back the hours of  25 part-time employees due to the $31,000 per employee price tag that it would cost the Township to provide health  coverage to them under the terms of the soon to be implemented Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). For many  (myself included, you can read about it  HERE)  the $31,000 price tag stated seemed absurdly high and not at all possible, but it is. In its follow-up article from Saturday, "Middletown health plan tops most in cost, coverage" the APP's reporter Susanne Cervenka spoke to the town's insurance broker who stated that Middletown Township’s health benefits are so good " the coverage would fall under a nonexistent “Double Diamond” rating on the Affordable Care Act’s four-tier ranking."  Insurance rankings for plans proposed under the Affordable Care Act actually includes Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum level coverage.

The article goes on to state that Middletown expects to pays about $9.3 million this year for employee and retiree health bills or about 14 percent of this year's overall $67.9 million budget which represent about 18 percent of the municipal tax levy. Employee offset the costs by contributing only $520,000 towards their benefits. And on average,health care costs taxpayers who own an average Middletown home worth $375,500 about $337 a year.

That's outragous especially when you consider that according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization focusing on the major health care issues, the  average health care costs in the Northeast is $17,441 for family coverage and $6,117 for single coverage which would make Middletown's health care costs nearly double the national average.

At that cost, Middletown could afford to insure all it's employees while cutting its overall cost of coverage in half!

Contrasting Styles Between Cuomo & Christie; Different Approach, Same Outcome No Animosity

NJ.com yesterday had an interesting editorial that I think a lot of people should be reading.

In the face of an $11 billion dollar budget defect, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo balanced NY's budget by cutting spending and entitlement without raising taxes just as our governor did last year (although that is somewhat debatable). Cuomo achieved this by reaching out to legislator and including them in the process. Gov. Christie on the other hand, has created divisiveness between the governor's office and those in the legislature with his take it or leave it approach and sledgehammer style.

Interestingly Cuomo was able to balance his State's budget without demonizing any one group (public employees) or had to hold nonstop "Town Hall" meetings to convince people that there is a problem and his way of solving it, is the only way that it can be done.

Resident of NJ should take notice and see how a different, less caustic and abrasive style can achieve similar yet far different results.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo just won agreement on a budget for New York state that cuts overall spending and contains no new taxes. He even blocked an attempt by fellow Democrats to extend a surtax on millionaires.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because New Jersey did all that last year. Perhaps Cuomo looked across the Hudson and liked what he saw.

Now maybe Gov. Chris Christie can return the compliment. Because Cuomo has something to teach him as well.

Note the lack of personal attacks in Albany. Cuomo was tough, but he wasn’t abusive. He didn’t call his Assembly speaker a liar, for example, or clear his schedule for a nonstop tour on the unlimited greed of teachers and cops.

And he negotiated. Especially relevant to New Jersey was Cuomo’s approach to Medicaid.

Like most states, New York and New Jersey are facing daunting increases in health care costs. Cuomo’s approach was collaborative.

He invited key stakeholders, including hospitals and unions, to sit together and hammer out an agreement on cuts. If they couldn’t come up with an answer, he said, then he would do it for them.

After two months, Cuomo’s committee pulled it off, agreeing to 79 cost-cutting measures, from lowering reimbursements to shifting patients to managed care plans.

Christie wants to cut $540 million in Medicaid spending next year, a huge sum that both sides expect to be a main point of contention. But he’s drawn up his plan in secret, and even now is keeping the Legislature out of the loop. People such as Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), a key architect of the current system, are still looking for basic answers.

“They are crafting their own proposal in a vacuum,” Vitale says. “They would be wise to include legislators.”

Cuomo’s collaboration ensured that his plan had broad political support, and would pass. Christie’s approach risks just the opposite.