Scurry County court moves to approve 2025 employee benefit renewal after discussion of retiree premium increases

Speaker 2, Court member, moved to approve the county's 2025 employee benefit renewal and to "pick up the increase for retirees under than 65," saying the change would address increased retiree costs. The court discussed details provided by staff about how retiree premiums would change and how COBRA costs compare.

The proposal followed a presentation from staff (Speaker 3 and Speaker 5) explaining that two retirees or former employees would be affected by the new rates. Speaker 3 cited examples of the change in retiree costs, noting an increase of about $26.88 for one retiree and a larger increase (reported in the transcript as roughly $403.38) for another. Staff also noted that COBRA premiums can be substantially higher than retiree coverage, and that the county has seen few retiree enrollments in recent years.

Supporters said the county should absorb the modest retiree increases to avoid placing the larger COBRA burden on former employees. Speaker 2 said the county would cover the increases for current employees and that the proposed motion picked up the retiree share for those under 65. No formal roll-call vote tied to individual names is recorded in the transcript's motion segment.

The court's next steps, as recorded in the meeting, were to adopt the renewal as moved and to proceed with implementation steps managed by staff.