Hamburg Central School teachers and staff who retire this year will have some or all of their health insurance paid for several years, after the School Board approved an incentive Tuesday night.
The district will provide teachers 100 percent of the cost of the policy for a single person for four years, or 50 percent of the cost of a family plan for four years, interim Superintendent Richard Jetter said.
Other staff members making $32,000 a year or less would receive $4,000 a year for three years for health care costs. Those earning more than $32,000 would receive $5,000 a year for three years for their health care costs.
Jetter said it is not known how many may take advantage of the incentive, which is not being offered to administrators.
“We didn’t offer an incentive because there is a very low amount of administrators, and they are not interested in retiring,” he said.
The deadline for taking the incentive is March 28. He said the district would determine if the retiring employee would need to be replaced.
“Once the incentive is approved, people start to come out of the woodwork,” he said. “Even if we get one, that’s a savings to the district.”
Director of Administrative Services Barbara Sporyz also updated board members on projected revenues for the 2014-15 budget. She will present the projected spending at the board’s next meeting, but she said some expenses, such as those connected to the retirement incentive, will not be known until next month.
The district’s projected tax cap is 4.23 percent. Sporyz said the district will be able to approve a budget with a tax levy of $34.93 million, which is $1.41 million more than this year’s levy, on a simple majority vote. If the tax levy goes above the cap, then the budget must be approved by 60 percent of the voters.
Also Tuesday, board members called on the State Legislature to do away with the Gap Elimination Adjustment, which was instituted by the state in 2011 to help bridge the state’s budget gap by reducing state aid.
But the money has not been totally reinstated, and Hamburg should be receiving $2.53 million more in state aid this year, Sporyz said.
email: bobrien@buffnews.com
The district will provide teachers 100 percent of the cost of the policy for a single person for four years, or 50 percent of the cost of a family plan for four years, interim Superintendent Richard Jetter said.
Other staff members making $32,000 a year or less would receive $4,000 a year for three years for health care costs. Those earning more than $32,000 would receive $5,000 a year for three years for their health care costs.
Jetter said it is not known how many may take advantage of the incentive, which is not being offered to administrators.
“We didn’t offer an incentive because there is a very low amount of administrators, and they are not interested in retiring,” he said.
The deadline for taking the incentive is March 28. He said the district would determine if the retiring employee would need to be replaced.
“Once the incentive is approved, people start to come out of the woodwork,” he said. “Even if we get one, that’s a savings to the district.”
Director of Administrative Services Barbara Sporyz also updated board members on projected revenues for the 2014-15 budget. She will present the projected spending at the board’s next meeting, but she said some expenses, such as those connected to the retirement incentive, will not be known until next month.
The district’s projected tax cap is 4.23 percent. Sporyz said the district will be able to approve a budget with a tax levy of $34.93 million, which is $1.41 million more than this year’s levy, on a simple majority vote. If the tax levy goes above the cap, then the budget must be approved by 60 percent of the voters.
Also Tuesday, board members called on the State Legislature to do away with the Gap Elimination Adjustment, which was instituted by the state in 2011 to help bridge the state’s budget gap by reducing state aid.
But the money has not been totally reinstated, and Hamburg should be receiving $2.53 million more in state aid this year, Sporyz said.
email: bobrien@buffnews.com