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FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE: March 18, 2010

Contact: Tara L. Martin | TaraM@westchesterlegislators.com
| 914-995-2016 (office) | 914-380-0931 (cell)

Westchester County Lawmakers Respond to Astorino Veto on

Employee
Health Insurance Contributions Bill

(White Plains, NY)
--  Westchester County Board of Legislators Chairman Ken Jenkins (D-Yonkers), along with Board
Vice-Chairman Lyndon Williams (D-Mount Vernon) and Majority Whip Judith Myers
(D-Larchmont), co-chairs of the Board’s Special Committee on Health
Insurance Savings released the following joint statement in response to County
Executive Astorino’s veto of the Board’s bill requiring county
employees to contribute to their health insurance.

“With the incredible
challenges facing Westchester families, Monday
night's vote was an enormous step forward towards implementing employee
contributions for health insurance.  The Board’s plan specifically
causes 73% of eligible county employees (who currently pay nothing) to pay some
portion of their annual insurance. Of these, 50% would contribute at the top
scale of 15%.  This historic policy change is being presented in the
middle of a year of service, which is unprecedented for any public or private
employment.  The Board presented an interim plan that will be in effect
until December 31, 2010, when we will have a comprehensive  plan in
place that requires employees to make a contribution towards their health care
combined with savings of $15-20 million dollars through competition for Westchester's health care coverage. 
  

As Democratic leaders continue to
survey legislators, the County
Executive should be
reminded that a major policy shift such as this is not something to take lightly or to
be politicized. 

It is unprecedented at any government level to use
non-represented employees as a bargaining tactic for future union contract
negotiations. Such an act demonizes the hard-working employees of our County
and would, truly, create different classes of employees. 

The actual savings from both, the
Board’s plan and the County
Executive’s plan,
are not where the dispute really is. The real issue is the implementation of a
plan to result in employee contributions and provide significant savings to
taxpayers.  This element requires looking at both the employee
contribution side AND the cost reductions that can be achieved through offering
a variety of options to employees with a cafeteria plan of health insurance
options.

It’s imperative to note that
the Board’s plan was modeled after several pre-existing government
employee health insurance contribution structures throughout the state. 
With regards to the interim tiered contribution model, it should be noted that
out of the 7 neighboring Hudson Valley counties, 5 have tiered-scale contributions (with Dutchess and Rockland encompassing 0% employee
contributions based upon years of service).  In terms of
Westchester’s most comparable suburban counties of Nassau
and Suffolk, both counties currently pay 100% of
their employee’s health care costs, and both counties currently
haven’t raised property taxes.

Finally, the Board’s
Democratic Leadership met with Mr. Astorino when he took office in January and
expressed our support and cooperation with his administration. In this regard,
we jointly established a process for biweekly meetings with Mr. Astorino and
his staff, the Board’s Republican leadership and our Democratic
leadership. Our joint commitment was to try to work together to reach consensus
of issues through open dialogue, and to respectfully disagree where we could
not do so, without unnecessarily politicizing issues and creating a public
atmosphere of hopeless dissention. Everyone knows that implementing historic
change requires action to be taken in steps  as we move forward to
work on broader and more important issues.  We continue to hope that the Astorino
administration are sincere about our joint commitment. We hope not to
be proven wrong. 

Regardless of the final outcome of
this bill,  the Board calls on the Administration to return to the
spirit of bipartisanship and cooperation and work with us as we develop a
comprehensive plan that represents the best of what Westchester taxpayers expect
from their elected officials -- real savings, real innovation, real service
improvement, and more value for their tax dollar – not political
posturing and turf wars between the 8th and 9th floors of
the County Office Building.”

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Additional
news and video available at www.westchesterlegislators.com/mediacenter

_______________________________________

Tara L. Martin, Director of Communications

Westchester County
Board of Legislators
148 Martine
Avenue, 8th Floor
White Plains, NY  10601

Ofc: (914) 995-2016                

Fax: (914) 995-3884

Cell: (914) 380-0931

Email: TaraM@westchesterlegislators.com

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