Lane County Commission Gets It Right

It is a welcome change to give kudos to a group of elected government officials when they get it right, policy wise anyway. Such is the case with the Lane County Commission who has begun a program of buying out high cost senior county employees into retirement and reaping big cost savings down the road. This story also articulates how the program will stay on target with its savings goals and puts in place employee fiendly options like Health Savings Accounts while lowering overall costs to the taxpayers of employing county workers. Obviously, the Commissioners needed to negotiate these changes with the unions which they have done successfully.

Clearly they see the handwriting on the wall with the expected PERS cost explosion begining in 2017 and they are proactively taking prudent steps to get ahead of the curve. I hope this serves as a model for other county commissions to get their econmic houses in orders before it is too late.