Ask Mr. Answer Person: "How much do city employees pay for health insurance...and how much do taxpayers pay?"

Leann e-mails Mr. Answer Person: "How much do city employees and families actually pay for their health insurance?  What are the deductibles and how much are taxpayers paying for?  Should city employees be paying more instead of us taxpayers?"

Mr. Answer Person says: "You might have seen our recent news story about a heated discussion of this topic at the last Decorah City Council meeting (http://www.decorahnews.com/news-stories/2014/07/8646.html

There was discussion at that meeting about "a $780,000 decision" as to which health insurance company to use for coverage for city employees.  That's correct--but it's also misleading in a way.  That's because City of Decorah employees will be paying roughly $100,000 in health premiums in 2014-2015, meaning the total net cost to property taxpayers will be $681,796.

City employees have different levels of payment for health policies.  If they have a single policy, they pay 5 percent of the cost.  If they have a family policy, they pay 10 percent.  Retirees can also continue on the city's helath insurance policy.  They can use half of their accumulated sick leave value to apply towards health insurance premiums--then they must pay 100 percent of the cost when those funds run out.

As for your question about whether city employees should be paying more instead of us taxpayers, I have never met a taxpayer yet who didn't think he or she was paying too much in taxes!  But the reaction city employees would have to such a proposal would probably be the same reaction you would have!  It's also a commonly-stated opinion that wages in the public sector are lower than they are in the private sector and one of the ways this difference can be made up is by having better benefits.

As I write this, I know none of this can persuade you that your property taxes shouldn't be lower.  So let me tell you that any change in health insurance coverage would have to be the result of negotiations between the city and its employee union.  In other words, the city couldn't just say "Next year, you're be paying half your health premium."