Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Employee Benefits topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Centreville to use FY24 health-insurance surplus to fund employee "health holidays"
Summary
Council members agreed to use a $96,072 FY24 health-plan surplus to provide temporary premium relief to employees. Staff proposed options; the council reached consensus on a plan giving hourly employees multiple pay-period premium waivers and a smaller benefit for salaried staff.
Centreville — The Centreville Town Council agreed during its budget work session to return a health-plan surplus to employees in the form of temporary premium relief.
Staff reported the FY24 health-plan surplus totaled $96,072. Staff presented two options for distributing that surplus as "health holidays," periods during which the town would not deduct employee health-premium contributions from payroll. The staff memo and the chart circulated at the meeting showed an option that would provide hourly employees approximately four pay periods of waived premium contributions and, as a second-tier option, a partial-month credit for salaried employees. After discussion, council members expressed consensus for the staff—s first option and asked staff to identify the exact pay periods and to administratively implement the credit.
Why it matters: for lower-paid hourly employees, employer-paid health-premium credits can represent meaningful short-term cash flow relief. Staff emphasized the payment would come from a surplus generated by plan-year performance and not from the town—s operating fund.
Administration details and next steps: staff said they would finalize the calendar dates for the health holidays and implement the credit in payroll. Staff also reminded council that plan-year renewal numbers arrive in late March and they budgeted a conservative 10 percent premium increase for FY26; staff noted a pending carrier estimate suggested the actual renewal might be lower (3— percent) but advised the council to keep a conservative number until final invoices arrive.
