$1M Trimmed From Premium Pay

Allyson Dix 

Jobe Publishing, Inc. 

 

Barren County employees will see an increase in their premium paychecks after the fiscal court unanimously approved to pay employees’ retirement contributions and tax deductions from the payments in a special-called meeting last week. 

 Judge/Executive Micheal Hale presented more information regarding ARPA funds to the court and proposed to utilize the money in a way that leaves the employees with “more money in their pockets.” Magistrates agreed in late November they wanted to maximize this as well and agreed to add $300 per payment to help offset tax deductions. 

 One of the documents presented to the court from the U.S. Treasury Department detailed ARPA funds as they relate to employees’ pension funds. Highlighted portions, Hale explained, would allow the court to use the ARPA recovery funds to additionally pay for the retirement contributions to prevent those costs from being paid by the employees. 

 Hale said according to an e-mail dated 9/1/21 from the Kentucky Public Pensions Authority that is addressed to the Barren County Fiscal Court, they are required to include pension contributions in the premium pay incentive. The letter states premium pay is considered a bonus payment and cites KRS 78.510(13) that it “shall be included as creditable compensation…” regarding pensions. 

 The amount for all three payments will total $758,639.34, which is roughly $1-million less than the initial approved amounts from the October vote, Hale said. 

 The court has spent weeks discussing details surrounding the premium pay. 

 This newspaper discovered through documents provided by the judge’s office that this would have left the top two paid employees receiving more than a $36,000 aggregated bonus, and several above the $25,000 max amount set by the federal government per employee. 

Magistrates have voiced numerous times that the move was a rushed decision and several meetings have been held to discuss the matter. 

 “We are just now getting the right information we needed to make the decisions,” Magistrate Tim Coomer said last week, adding that the court would have broken federal laws if they had continued with original amounts. 

 Hale also provided a portion of the treasury document that defines essential workers. It states, “To ensure that premium pay is targeted to workers that faced or face heightened risks due to the character of their work, the Interim Final Rule defines essential work as work involving regular in-person interactions or regular physical handling of items that were also handled by others.” 

 Hale said employee eligibility was also reduced from 133 to 94 employees. BCP sought clarification on the employee reduction from the County Treasurer, Jenny Hoffman. 

 Hoffman said, “The difference in the number of employees getting premium pay is only because of the dates used in the calculations. The court voted to make the dates from March 2020-2021.” The initial October vote included $5/hour worked during the pandemic starting 1/27/20 through 9/3/2021. 

 The amounts approved in late November were unchanged, which was $1 per hour worked with a max of $3,300 per employee per payment expected within the next 12 months. Overtime hours by both hourly and salary employees can be counted. The three-payment schedule was expected to begin with employees receiving their first check last Friday. 

 Additionally, the court voted to give $243,000 premium pay to the Barren-Metcalfe EMS as a one-time lump sum payment for EMTs and paramedics.