By John Raffel
Correspondent
MARION – Osecola County commissioners were presented with a proposal this week at its meeting for the commisioners to be provided with health insurance.
Commissioner Roger Elkins, of Evart, said no action was taken.
Elkins said county administrator Tim Ladd provided some options for increasing pay for county commissioners and provided figures if they wanted to do some health insurance for commissioners.
“We’re looking in two weeks to make a decision on that,” Elkins said. “The county treasurer spoke againt hospitalization at the end of the meeting, saying we’ve had deficit spending for a number of years and health insurance could be as much as $20,000 per person, for seven commissioners. Once you put it out there, you dont put it back. It would be an additional $140,000.”
Elkins said commissioner Tim Mitchell from the Marion area spoke against it.
“I don’t think anyone else on the commission spoke either way,” Elkins said. “It would be an expensive proposition and you start precedence. Tim said a numbe of counties including Mecosta County do have health insurance for county commissioners.”
There was also a proposal mentioned for increasing commissioners’ wages. They currently get $6,000 annually and a per diem. It would go to $7,200 annual and more per diem/