Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By ZACHARY MARANO
Ironwood — The Ironwood Township Board held a special meeting at the Ironwood Township Office on Monday for a workshop for the 2022 proposed budget.
Supervisor Jay Kangas said that according to the renewal form that the office received half an hour before the meeting, there will be an 11.64% increase in the rates for health insurance in 2022. Kangas said this was “quite a bit higher than I anticipated it was going to be.”
Kangas said that the health insurance rate was without the township’s Health Reimbursement Arrangement, which itself is contingent on contract negotiations with the labor union. The union contract expires Dec. 31. Kangas said they can start working on the budget while waiting for contract negotiations.
Board trustee Brenda Aili-Angus said that she wanted to get rid of the HRA, but treasurer Mary Segalin said that the other plans are also expensive. Health insurance will cost the township about $7,100 a month on any plan, Segalin said. The only difference is the funding on the HRA.
Segalin said that the board should explore the option of a Health Savings Account instead of an HRA, which Kangas and board trustee James Simmons said they will do in the next budget workshop.
“An HRA is funded on top of the free premiums, and what it does is mitigate the cost of the policy itself. You get a higher deductible, but you’re funding it in-house,” Simmons said.
Simmons also said the township should have an adequate level of coverage with health insurance because it is an important draw to retaining employees.
Segalin said that she wants to increase the budget for elections to $1,500 because the state no longer provides reimbursement for elections. She also said she wants to increase the budget for office supplies to $750 to cover postage for mail-in voting.
