Insurance Costs

Town and Board of Education employee insurance budget lines, FY 2007-08 onward

The short version: these charts are complete, but the story is ordinary

The two charts below were built out fully — town-side insurance (health, workers' comp, property/liability, unemployment) and the Board of Education's employee health/dental/vision line — but the takeaway is unremarkable. Insurance costs in Colchester have risen at roughly the rate they have risen for employers across Connecticut and the country.

Town health insurance grew about 54% over 18 years, close to the 51% rise in general consumer prices over the same window. Health insurance premiums have climbed broadly across U.S. public and private employers over this period, so Colchester's trend largely reflects the national cost-of-coverage environment rather than a town-specific decision. The year-to-year wiggles come mostly from claims experience, plan-year timing, and accounting treatment of reserve balances — not from anything that distinguishes Colchester from its neighbors.

The charts live on their own page because they are included for completeness and transparency, not because they reveal a distinctive local trend. Read them if you want the line-item detail; the headline is simply that insurance got more expensive everywhere.

Update (August 2026): the BOE side of this story turned out to be less ordinary than it first appeared. The FY 2022-23 step down in the BOE's employee insurance line (Chart 24 below) reflected budgets drawing on the district's health insurance reserve; by 2026 that reserve was reported nearly depleted, and the FY 2026-27 proposed budget raised the line to $7.4M to cover costs and restore it. That story now has its own page: The Health Insurance Fund.

What does the town side pay for insurance?

Town Insurance Costs: Health, Workers' Comp & Liability

Total town insurance grew 61.5% ($1.25M → $2.02M), moving from 9.2% to 11.8% of the total town budget.

Notes

Town-side insurance budget (health insurance, workers' compensation, property/liability, unemployment). This covers ~85 town employees — the BOE manages its own benefits separately. All amounts from adopted budget line items.

Health insurance against CPI, and which component grew fastest

Town health insurance grew 54.1% ($729K → $1.12M) — roughly tracking CPI inflation (51.3%). Workers’ compensation is the faster-growing component.

Why the year-to-year moves are not attributed to a cause

Year-to-year health insurance line moves substantially (notable dips in FY 2012-13, FY 2014-15, and FY 2015-16); the underlying drivers are not directly attributable from the budget books in the source folder — possible factors include claims experience, plan-year timing, carrier or plan-design changes, and accounting reclassifications, but no specific renegotiation event with quantified savings was located in the Lockton consultant pages or town meeting minutes available here.

What this chart leaves out: the school side

The BOE’s employee benefits (separate from this budget) were $4.49M in FY 2007-08 (13.5% of the BOE budget); detailed BOE benefits breakdowns are not available in the town budget documents for later years.

And what does the school side budget for it?

BOE Employee Related Insurance — Budgeted Cost Over Time

The BOE line peaked at $5.58M in FY 2014-15 and dropped to $3.82M in FY 2022-23, a 31.5% step down.

Notes

The BOE's adopted budget for employee health/dental/vision insurance (account 41210). The dashed line shows what FY 2010-11's cost would be if it had simply grown with CPI inflation.

Whether the drop reversed in later years

OCR of the FY 2023-24 and FY 2024-25 budget books (added 2026-05-27) confirms the line stayed at the lower level — $3.96M (FY 23-24) and $3.63M (FY 24-25) — so the FY 2022-23 drop held for three budget years rather than a single one. The FY 2026-27 proposal raises the line again, to $7.4M.

What the budget book gives as the reason for the step down

The FY 2023-24 budget book’s own rationale line for this account cites drawing on a “health reserve balance,” and the ~$1.4M did not reappear on the town side (the town budget did not jump in FY 2022-23). The most defensible reading: the reduction reflects using accumulated insurance-reserve fund balance to offset budgeted premiums — an accounting/funding change — rather than a real cut in employee benefits.

What this budgeted line does not measure

This budgeted line alone does not track underlying claims costs year to year; readers interested in the true cost picture should consult the district’s actuarial reports rather than over-reading this single line.