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Committee advances $100,000 appropriation for employee pregnancy benefit
Summary
A county committee recommended a $100,000 appropriation to fund a six-week pregnancy benefit for employees, placing the expense in the health insurance fund to allow cost recovery from other departments; the measure passed the committee by voice vote.
A St. Joseph County committee recommended a $100,000 appropriation to establish a pregnancy benefit for county employees and advanced the measure by voice vote.
Speaker 3 introduced the item as “a $100,000 appropriation here regarding an item in your handbook, a pregnancy benefit.” Speaker 2 described the benefit’s structure, saying it would provide six weeks of support, “$200 a week for employees that 1 to 2 years of service and $400 a week for employees that have more than 2 years of service.” Speaker 2 said staff had contacted Troy Scott for cost estimates and received a range of about $70,000 to $130,000; the committee used $100,000 for the budget and added statutory payroll taxes to arrive at an appropriation figure.
Speaker 2 said the funding was placed in the county health insurance fund so other departments could be charged for their share of the cost. No commissioners opposed the recommendation; a motion and second were made and the item carried by voice vote.
The committee did not record an exact effective date for the benefit in the discussion, and there was an unclear numeric phrase in the record related to the maximum payment (the transcript records a figure transcribed as “24 100” that could not be verified from the audio). That detail should be clarified in committee documents before final council action.
The committee advanced the appropriation to the next stage for council consideration.
