Spiking Healthcare Premiums Addressed By Morristown Mayor

MORRISTOWN, NJ — Morristown Mayor Tim Dougherty spoke out at a press conference attended by all mayors and elected officials from Southeast Morris towns to discuss the effects of upcoming increases in health insurance premiums on local residents.

The event, which took place on the front steps of the Morris Township Municipal Building, served as both an informational discussion and a call to action and a plea for change to elected officials in Trenton.

The state surprised all New Jersey municipalities, including Morristown, earlier this fall with a 20% increase in healthcare insurance rates, prompting local governments to pass resolutions opposing the increase in an attempt to fight back.

"The substantial premium increases of over 20 percent proposed for State Health Benefits Program participants is yet another burden taxpayers and public employees will be left to carry and will leave many towns grappling with the potential for layoffs, the cancelation of important public projects, and/or tax increases," said Mayor Mark Gyorfy, Morris Township Mayor.

According to the new healthcare proposals, hundreds of thousands of New Jersey public employees, early retirees and school employees could face rate increases of up to 20% for health benefits.

Locally, the impending impact of the massive health-care premium increases will potentially strain budgets and drive up property taxes.

"This was not a surprise. It was out months and months ago. A deal was cut with the state at three percent increase, but no deal was cut with the municipalities. The question is, what's coming next year and the year after. Are we looking at another double digit increase," Dougherty said.

According to officials, municipalities across the county have faced daunting challenges in recent years to keep public finances in order, ranging from the unanticipated and complex effects of the COVID-19 pandemic to subsequent cost increases for basic services due to inflation.

"Somebody picked up a can of soup and it was $6. It's really, very expensive to shop now for food, especially if you're a family of three or four or five," Dougherty said.

Morristown, one of the few self-insured municipalities in the county, will face an insurance increase of approximately $1 million, or 16 percent, according to Dougherty. "It's affecting everyone across the board. Not just the state health plan, but any health care costs."

Senator Anthony M. Bucco stated following the press conference that the mayors of Morris County were correct to be concerned about the impending impact of massive health insurance premium increases.

“It’s clear, however, that Governor Murphy knew this was coming as early as February, months before the increases were announced. Had the governor shared that knowledge with the rest of us this spring, we could have worked on a solution with mayors, local governments, and the administration as part of the State Budget adopted in June. Unfortunately, that never happened because the administration wasn’t transparent about what it knew.”

Another point raised by Mayor Dougherty was that the increased tax burden on residents will have a negative impact on community retention, and population numbers will suffer as a result. "I think there's going to come a time when you can only raise your taxes so much to your residents and it starts to become such a burden that they're no longer going to live in your community and it really causes a spiral downward."

Dougherty mentioned in his speech that Morristown has dealt with the ebb and flow of population decline in the past and that, while he does not know what the solution is, the only way to figure it out is to work together.

"We have to start talking about what else can we do to offset the costs of running government and give the same service to our citizens," Dougherty said.