Kent selectmen weigh insurance options ahead of budget hearing

KENT — The Board of Selectmen voted to sign on to a state health insurance plan for Town Hall employees at a last-minute special meeting held on April 29.

The decision came after Sharon Central School and the Sharon selectmen, who were previously on the same plan, announced a switch to the state plan at the town’s budget hearing the previous Friday.

Tasked by the Board of Finance to cut their 2025-26 budget down to a zero increase from the previous fiscal year, the Sharon Board of Education decided the best means to achieve a cut of that size without impacting education or school programs would be to trim insurance costs for its non-certified employees.

Before the recent changes, those Sharon employees were covered with a plan shared with several Kent municipal employees and several employees at Salisbury’s town hall. That plan, known as RSD 1, had a minimum enrollment requirement of 50 members, which will no longer be met. The other groups, including Kent, have since been seeking alternative insurance options in what Sharon BOE Chair Douglas Cahill described at the April 25 hearing as an unintended consequence of its budget cut.

At the April 29 meeting, Kent First Selectman Marty Lindenmayer informed the BOS that after reviewing numerous other options, the state plan was by far the most cost-efficient. “It’s the best we can do for the town,” he said.

After some discussion surrounding the employee cost share percentage, the Board voted 2-1 to move forward with the state plan with a cost share percentage of 10%.

The switch would mark about $27,000 in premium savings for the town operating budget, plus an additional savings of $32,000 due to the elimination of a municipal Health Savings Account for employees.

The public will have an opportunity to provide input on the insurance changes as well as other budget-related topics at the public hearing tomorrow night, May 9, at 6 p.m., which was postponed from last Friday.