BENSON — From health insurance to gym memberships, town employees enjoy a wide range of benefits and perks that cost taxpayers nearly $2 million a year.
The single largest expense is employee health insurance. Benson pays $8,395.44 per employee, with employees chipping in $25 a month, or 3.57% of the annual premium. In the private sector, the average employee share is 17%, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
But Benson, part of the State Health Plan, will soon require employees to pay more, as much as $130 a month, depending on salary. “So the more you make, the more you pay,” Scott Tart, the town’s human resources chief, told the Board of Commissioners on Aug. 12…