To the Times:
Newtown Township Supervisor Health Insurance Premiums.
In just over a month, Newtown Township voters go to the polls to select two supervisors. Township supervisors, like all other elected officials, are public trustees, chosen first and foremost to protect the interests of all citizens. Unless the holders of elected office subordinate their own wants and preferences to the common good of the citizenry, representative government corrupts, decays and ultimately fails. This principle governs all levels of government, whether national, state, county or local.
Applying this principle to the upcoming supervisor elections, voters must take notice of how the current Board of Supervisors has enriched itself at the expense of the average township resident.
The current Newtown budget carries a $99,284 line item devoted to medical insurance for the Board of Supervisors —roughly $20,000 per supervisor. Between 2001 and 2007, the Board of Supervisors allocated a grand total of $328,266 for an average annual expenditure of $46,895, all to cover health insurance for five persons who work part-time.
Does this practice demonstrate the current board's passion for public service, fulfilling its role as public trustee, or does it more accurately portray it as opportunists willing to take compensation wholly out of proportion to the position for which its members volunteered?
When carefully scrutinized, the Newtown supervisors’ actions do not hold up well as an example of how public servants should behave. Consider how their colleagues in adjacent communities approach the same issue.
None of the township supervisors or commissioners in the following neighboring municipalities receives any health-insurance benefits: Easttown, Tredyffrin, Westtown, Willistown, Concord, Edgmont, Upper Providence, East Goshen, Marple and Radnor.
The only nearby community that does provide a health insurance benefit for its Board of Commissioners is Haverford Township, but even in Haverford commissioners must pay their own premiums effective in budget year 2008. Clearly, the practice of elected municipal officials awarding themselves extensive health-insurance benefits is not the standard of practice in this region, even though state law permits such coverage.
Beyond the typical behavior of township officials in this area is the lack of regard for typical working people who struggle to acquire and retain health insurance for their families. The most recent report from the U.S. Census Bureau, just released in August, reports that 15 percent of all Americans lack any health insurance coverage. The estimated number of Americans without health insurance swelled from around 31 million in 1987 to more than 46 million in 2006.
How does the supervisors' decision to take profoundly expensive health-insurance coverage demonstrate any regard for the well being or needs of elderly retirees, single-parent households, the chronically ill and disabled, or others whose access to comprehensive health insurance coverage is tenuous at best?
Where is the demonstration of civic virtue that places the needs of the average township resident ahead of self-interest?
The supervisors’ spending on their own health insurance is all the more egregious given their respective occupations. Two of the five sitting supervisors are practicing attorneys who enjoy well-above-average incomes even by Newtown Township standards. Add to this a former practicing dentist, now a successful entrepreneur, and an employee of a non-profit agency that receives robust governmental funding, and the need for health-insurance coverage subsidized by township residents seems even less justifiable.
Should township taxpayers subsidize the cost of operating a law practice or provide coverage that may well duplicate that available from a private sector employer? The obvious answer is no.
Dr. Lambert has held office for six years. During this time, has he ever protested or questioned the propriety of receiving health insurance secured by local taxation? Would
Dr. Lambert repudiate the excessive cost of this outrageous fringe benefit?
Will Mr. Wood renounce his entitlement to this coverage if elected? As a candidate for office, I am prepared to plainly and clearly state that I will not participate in any township-offered health-insurance program for the Board of Supervisors unless the supervisors pay the full premium.
The matter of the cost and access to health insurance coverage for Newtown supervisors is a bread-and-butter issue for township residents. It cannot be blamed on developers, the regulations of state, federal, or other external authorities, or any other agency. It is a decision made by five elected officials that serves their own interest and their interest only.
Voters can send a message to Bishop Hollow Road that it is time to end this shameful practice. Only an opposition candidate can serve as the messenger. In this election, I am the opposition candidate prepared and willing to deliver the message.
NATHAN A. GLAZER
Democratic Candidate for Newtown Township Supervisor