SPOTSWOOD, NJ — Spotswood officials are calculating how much taxpayers paid toward employee health insurance after discovering that contribution amounts for some borough employees had not been properly updated for several years.
The issue surfaced during public comments at the Sept. 21 Borough Council meeting, when a resident questioned council about employee health-benefit contributions and how much of the cost had been covered by taxpayers.
Business Administrator Frederick Carr said the problem was discovered earlier this year as the borough was changing its health insurance. According to Carr, contribution amounts for some employees apparently had not been updated beginning around 2023.
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Carr said the borough has since corrected the deductions and is now collecting the appropriate amounts from affected employees.
The financial impact, however, has not yet been established.
Carr said the estimated difference for one employee group for the current year would have been approximately $125,000 if the higher contribution amounts had not been collected. When the resident asked whether that represented about $125,000 per year, Carr said it did.
Carr also discussed other employee groups, but the exchange became less clear as officials attempted to distinguish between employees whose contribution levels were governed by collective bargaining agreements and those whose required contributions had not been updated.
Carr said taxpayers had covered the portion of health-insurance costs that should have been collected from employees in the affected group.
The resident attempted to calculate a cumulative cost covering several employee groups and multiple years. Mayor Rich O’Brien cautioned against putting an estimated total into the public record before the borough had completed the calculation.
O’Brien said the borough would have Chief Financial Officer Joseph Zanga calculate the actual amount and report it back. He also disputed the larger figure discussed during the exchange while saying he did not want to minimize the amount involved.
The discussion did not establish an exact cumulative taxpayer cost, and no final figure was presented at the meeting.
The issue was raised during council comments rather than as a separate item on the meeting agenda.
The borough’s calculation from Zanga is expected to provide a clearer accounting of how much should have been collected from employees, how much was instead paid by the borough and the period during which the incorrect contribution amounts remained in place.
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