Finance committee told health-insurance error lowers projected budget increase

Alex Kimbell, deputy manager of finance and administration for Cumberland County, told the Finance Committee on Oct. 12 that he discovered a major calculation error in the health-insurance line used to build the 2023–24 budget. The mistake, Kimbell said, came from applying an 8% insurance increase twice when constructing a half-year baseline, which overstated department costs.

Kimbell said the error reduces the committee's end figure “all the way from 5.99% increase down to 5.26,” and that the change is isolated to the health-insurance line. He told the committee the 2023–24 budgets for departments will show lower health-insurance amounts and offered to prepare a two-column spreadsheet comparing the original and corrected numbers for each department.

County Manager Jim Gailey and other committee members asked whether the error affected other lines such as cost-of-living adjustments. Kimbell said the error was localized to the health trust calculation, noting that PERS and COLA adjustments are driven differently and were checked. He described the mistake as an “overthinking” of the timing of an annual January 1 increase when preparing a July-starting budget.

Committee members asked for a clear, revised presentation of the numbers. Kimbell agreed to produce a brief spreadsheet showing prior and corrected line items and said it would “only take like a half hour” to prepare. Gailey confirmed staff would circulate the corrected figures to committee members.

The committee did not take any formal vote on the correction at the Oct. 12 meeting; members requested the revised materials ahead of their November meeting.