By: Samantha Helmold
During the 2015 fiscal year, the Frederick Health Administration has over a 7 percent budget cut, but there was minimal change anywhere else.
In 2014, the budget stood at $138,969 and in 2015 the budget dropped to $129,231. So in the course of one year, it dropped $9465, but the question is where did the money go and why did it drop so much.
Regina Howell, the budget director, said the money went towards other things this year. “It went towards other post-employment benefits – retiree health care, when people retire we provide health insurance for them and the insurance premiums provide for them. This is where the money is going.”
Howell explained that they accrue the money for the employees while they’re employed so that way when they retire, the money is there waiting for them; they’ll have funding’s later on in life.
“We fund this into a trust for the moneys benefit – there was a reduction this year,” said Howell. She said that in 2013 they had to borrow moneys from this fund and they couldn’t replace it for this upcoming fiscal year.
Tanya Kauffman, an associate with Howell, said that they needed the additional funding’s for 2013 and in turn, they couldn’t keep up this year. The money just wasn’t there and they had to disburse it elsewhere.
Both Kauffman and Howell explained that overall, there was reduction in personnel expenses and that’s why it went down (fringe benefits specifically), and the budget has been approved for this year.