Tulare County and 4,200 of its employees have new contracts with new terms regarding pension and benefits. It’s a move that has averted a countywide strike, at least for now.
Once the issue appeared on the County Board of Supervisors’ agenda, the vote in favor was mostly a foregone conclusion. The ease of passage was a quiet end to a labor dispute that brought the county to the verge of a strike.
County employees are going to pay .3 percent more towards their pensions, bringing the total employee contribution next fiscal year to $17.8 million. The County will also pay more to cover some of the losses from the 2008 stock market crash –an increase of .16 percent. That means the county will pay $27.5 million – or about $595,000 more than was paid this year.
From the Visalia Times Delta:
As expected, the Tulare County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to approve slight increases in the amounts the county and its employees pay for their pension plans.
More than 4,200 county workers will pay an average 8.1 percent of their salaries into the plan, up from the 7.8 percent now deducted from their pay. At the new rate, the employees are expected to contribute a combined $17.8 million toward retirement.
Read the full article here.