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County staff urge larger reserves for liability fund; commissioners approve 5% workers' comp increase, consider property/liability options
Summary
An actuarial review prompted county staff to recommend increasing contributions to workers' compensation and property/liability reserve funds. Commissioners agreed to a 5% workers' compensation contribution increase and discussed 49% and 62% options for property and liability funding but did not adopt a final number that day.
County staff presented an actuary-informed review of two county risk funds — the workers' compensation fund and the property-and-liability fund — and recommended increasing fund contributions to improve solvency.
Dan (staff) and other budget presenters summarized the actuarial outlook, showing a rising projected trend in claim costs. For workers' compensation, staff described a middle funding option reflected in the 2025 budget: a 5% rate increase. After discussion, the board moved forward with that 5% option. A county presenter said, "That's that's our opinion too. Yeah. It's a liability one we need to, yeah, forget to. So we'll we'll move forward then at the 5% on the workers' comp."
The property-and-liability fund presented a larger shortfall. Staff described three illustrative options: a 0% increase (not recommended), a middle option shown as 49% and a more aggressive 62% option. Staff said the 49% option would leave the fund short of the actuarially recommended "1-in-20" solvency level and that the county would still be behind the recommended funding level. In the presentation, a staff member said, "This slide represents a 49% increase, which it would be about 4,000,000 over what's currently baked into the budget," and later that the 49% scenario would equate to about $8.7 million on the general-fund side for that option.
Commissioners raised concerns about how to pay for any large increase and which funds could absorb added contributions. Commissioner Cooney pressed for department-level dollar figures and asked about the impact on department budgets and whether general-fund balance would be used. Staff agreed to provide additional breakdowns by department and fund and to return with dollar impacts of the percentage options.
No binding vote was taken to adopt a large increase for the property-and-liability fund at the meeting. Staff characterized the property-and-liability fund shortfall as a significant budgetary pressure and recommended considering the actuarial options — with a midrange option under active consideration given current budget constraints.
Ending: The board approved the 5% workers' compensation contribution increase in discussion and directed staff to present department- and fund-level dollar impacts for the property-and-liability funding options so commissioners could make a final decision in coming weeks.
