A Star-Gazette survey of 13 school districts in Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben and Tioga counties found that employees contribute between zero and 22.5 percent toward the cost of their health insurance.

By comparison, a 2005 survey of 204 mostly Fortune 1000 companies conducted by Towers Perrin HR Services, a global professional service firm, found that employees paid an average of 20 percent of their health insurance costs.

As New Yorkers prepare to head to the polls Tuesday to vote on 2006-07 school year budgets, as well as school board candidates and other propositions, school district officials across the Southern Tier say the rising cost of providing health insurance to their employees has a significant impact on their spending plans.

Therefore, more and more are looking for ways to reduce those costs, from sharing services with other districts and educating their employees about the most cost-effective way to use benefits to increasing the amount employees pay for their own health insurance costs so it is closer to the average cited in the Towers Perrin survey.

For instance, districts are asking employees to carefully study their plans and to have prescriptions filled by mail rather than at the local pharmacy to save money.

And school districts throughout the Southern Tier are asking employees to contribute more toward the cost of their insurance as they renegotiate union contracts.

In Elmira, teachers must contribute 10 percent of the cost of their health insurance this school year, which will increase to 10.75 percent next school year.

Elmira Teachers Association President Doug Martin said the group's approximately 675 members recognize that health care costs are on the rise and are willing to contribute more to their insurance.

Likewise, Mike Thomas, president of the Custodial Maintenance Cafeteria Workers Association, said he has seen a significant change in the amount union members contribute toward their health insurance in the past 15 years, from nothing to a percentage of their pay to a percentage of the cost the insurance.

The current contribution of his members is 20 percent of the premium until age 65, then nothing, according to information provided by the school district.

Elmira Superintendent Raymond W. Bryant said that as health care costs take a larger portion of the district's budget -- it's currently about 15 percent -- finding ways to save money is more important.

"It certainly has been an expectation of our board that all of our employees contribute a fair and equitable amount toward health care," he said.

Pine City resident Edward Looney -- who said he has seen his school property taxes increase by about $470 or 32 percent over three years -- said that increased employee contributions to health insurance are a fair way to keep costs to taxpayers under control.

In Horseheads, Superintendent Bill Congdon said health care costs are "the single biggest financial issue facing the school district today," adding that employees are being asked to dip into their pockets to defray some of the costs.

Beginning July 1, 11 out of 12 district unions that have settled contracts will see their contribution increase from between $500 and $1,000 per year to 10 percent of the insurance cost.

That follows the national trend of employees paying more toward their insurance, according to the Towers Perrin survey, which found that employees will pay 10 percent more for their health care in 2006 than they did in 2005.

Chemung County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Kevin Keeley said the cost of providing health insurance to employees has been his members' top concern -- beyond even business taxes, utility costs or workers' compensation expenses.

"It's not only a huge cost to employers who provide health insurance to their employees, but it also continues to be a dramatically increasing cost," Keeley said.

It found that employer-based health insurance premiums increased by 9.2 percent in 2005, the fifth-consecutive year of increases over 9 percent.

The study also showed that in 2004, the latest year for which data is available, total spending on health care across the country rose by 7.9 percent, or more than three times the rate of inflation.

It does not appear that the need for schools, or for that matter any industry, to try to find ways to save money on health care will let up anytime soon.

What that means for school districts as they plan budgets and manage employee health care costs is one thing, said Elmira school board member Barton Graham.

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