(Cafeteria Plan for Coounty Employees Proposed)
STATEMENT OF
Hon. David L. Ganz
Mayor of Fair Lawn
September 19, 2002

The financial security of our County is very important.

Today, I want to recommend that Bergen County offer its employees a savings program, which will also help save the County money. By introducing a "Cafeteria Plan" pursuant to Section 125 of the federal Internal Revenue Code, the County can assist its employees in opening individual accounts funded by pre-tax dollars deducted from employees' salaries to an amount specified by the employee. This money is then used in offsetting employer provided benefit premiums and/or certain medical and child or dependent care expenses. The reduced employee salary will result in reduced individual taxes to the employee – cash in their pockets– and employer contributions – a tax savings for Bergen County taxpayers.

Though the "cafeteria plan" has a small administrative fee, the County would not have to pay the 7.5% Federal Social Security Employer Tax per employee on those participating in the program. This alone would result in great savings to Bergen County residents.

By way of simple example, if a County employee earning $40,000 annually was paying $100 a week for child care and used the "Cafeteria Plan", the worker would save almost $800 in Federal taxes and Bergen county taxpayers would save $375 [$5,000 predicate].

As Fair Lawn's Mayor, I wrote our Boro's employee healthcare cafeteria plan. Not only will this plan enable employees to use untaxed money for health and family related expenses, but it will also result in the County paying less employer taxes, thereby saving the County money.

Overall, if the County enacts these three proposals, the taxpayers will save money, and services will not be compromised.