# Employee benefits & reserves: what the town votes for it

One of twelve departments in the omnibus budget Town Meeting votes each spring. [All twelve together](/analysis/town-budgets).

## What it is

Costs that belong to no single department, printed by the town as `Gen Gov Unclassified`. Seven tenths of it is `Group Health Insurance` for town and school employees together; the rest is Medicare, liability and workers’ compensation insurance, group life, and two reserve funds the town holds against the unexpected — the `Reserve Fund` and the `Salary Reserve Fund`.

## The department

| | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---:|---:|---:|
| voted | $3,378,711 | $3,968,170 | $4,293,123 |
| a year | 12.7% |  |  |
| share of the budget | 9.8% |  |  |
| pull on total growth | +1.00 |  |  |

## Its lines, as printed

### FY2023

| line | label | voted |
|---|---|---:|
| 4 | Liability Insurance | $225,644 |
| 5 | Workers Compensation | $154,174 |
| 6 | Group Health Insurance | $2,455,675 |
| 7 | Group Life Insurance | $15,000 |
| 8 | Physicals | $3,500 |
| 9 | Print Town Reports | $12,000 |
|  | Mont Reg Planning Assess | $4,158 |
| 11 | Historical Commission | $3,000 |
| 12 | Band Concerts | $6,000 |
| 12A | Agricultural Commission | — |
| 13 | Reserve Fund | $75,000 |
| 13A | Salary Reserve Fund | $94,000 |
| 14 | Unemployment Expense | $10,000 |
| 14A | Unemployment Expense-Stab Fund | — |
| 15 | Medicare - Town's Share | $320,560 |
| | **total** | **$3,378,711** |

The page prints **$3,378,711** for this department. The lines above come to the same.

### FY2024

| line | label | voted |
|---|---|---:|
|  | Liability Insurance | $248,986 |
|  | Workers Compensation | $161,882 |
|  | Group Health Insurance | $2,957,470 |
|  | Group Life Insurance | $15,000 |
|  | Physicals | $3,500 |
|  | Print Town Reports | $12,000 |
| 10 | Mont Red Planning | $4,262 |
|  | Assess | — |
| 11 | Historical Commission | $3,000 |
| 12 | Band Concerts | $6,000 |
| 12A | Agricultural Commission | — |
|  | Reserve Fund | $75,000 |
| 13A | Salary Reserve Fund | $130,000 |
| 14 | Unemployment | $10,000 |
|  | Expense | — |
|  | Funnelek Exe-Stal | — |
| 15 | Medicare Town's | $341,070 |
|  | Share | — |
| | **total** | **$3,968,170** |

The page prints **$3,968,170** for this department. The lines above come to the same.

### FY2025

| line | label | voted |
|---|---|---:|
| 4 | Liability Insurance | $249,189 |
| 5 | Workers Compensation | $169,976 |
|  | Group Health Insurance | $3,059,912 |
|  | Group Life Insurance | $15,000 |
|  | Physicals | $3,500 |
|  | Print Town Reports | $12,000 |
|  | Mont Reg Planning Assess | $4,369 |
| 11 | Historical Commission | $3,000 |
|  | Band Concerts | $6,000 |
| 12A | Agricultural Commission | — |
| 13 | Reserve Fund | $200,000 |
| 13A | Salary Reserve Fund | $185,000 |
| 14 | Unemployment Expense | $10,000 |
| 14A | Unemplex Expense-Stab Fund | — |
| 15 | Medicare - Town's Share | $375,177 |
| | **total** | **$4,293,123** |

The page prints **$4,293,123** for this department. The lines above come to the same.

## What moved

Lines that appear in FY2023 and FY2025 under the same printed label, biggest move first.

| line | FY2023 | FY2025 | change |
|---|---:|---:|---:|
| Group Health Insurance | $2,455,675 | $3,059,912 | +$604,237 |
| Reserve Fund | $75,000 | $200,000 | +$125,000 |
| Salary Reserve Fund | $94,000 | $185,000 | +$91,000 |
| Medicare - Town's Share | $320,560 | $375,177 | +$54,617 |
| Liability Insurance | $225,644 | $249,189 | +$23,545 |
| Workers Compensation | $154,174 | $169,976 | +$15,803 |
| Mont Reg Planning Assess | $4,158 | $4,369 | +$211 |
| Group Life Insurance | $15,000 | $15,000 | +$0 |
| Physicals | $3,500 | $3,500 | +$0 |
| Print Town Reports | $12,000 | $12,000 | +$0 |
| Historical Commission | $3,000 | $3,000 | +$0 |
| Band Concerts | $6,000 | $6,000 | +$0 |

## What this cannot show

- What any department ASKED for. The omnibus is what Town Meeting voted, which is already balanced — the difference between a request and a vote is where a cut lives, and the annual report prints only the second.
- What was actually spent. Voted and spent are different quantities and rule 1 forbids mixing them in one calculation.
- Whether any department reduced SERVICE. A department can hold its dollars and cut its hours, and a dollar figure will not say so.
- Why any line moved. The omnibus states an amount and gives no reason for it, so every explanation of a movement here would be a hypothesis.
- Anything about FY2026 below the total. The FY2025 annual report prints no department figures at all.
- That growing faster than the levy cap is a problem. Proposition 2½ limits the LEVY, not the budget: the budget is the levy plus state aid, local receipts and transfers, and new growth raises the levy limit on top of the 2.5%. The cap is used here as a common reference point every board in town already uses — it is not a ceiling anybody breached.