Commissioner talks to Republican Women

Running for re-election, presiding Cape Girardeau County commissioner Clint Tracy on Friday highlighted some of the hot issues he's faced during his tenure during a presentation to the Cape County Republican Women.

Self-insurance, taxes and a facilities study were among them. This past year, with the Affordable Care Act, Tracy said people have seen a lot of "turmoil" and "upheaval" in their ability to obtain coverage, and the county was no exception.

Facing a double-digit increase over its $1 million premium in 2012, the county decided to go self-insured.

"Last year, in our first year of being self-insured, we saved $380,000 in premium costs. When you've got a $11.5 million budget, that's not peanuts; that's real money that we were able to save without sacrificing benefits or cost to employees. We've got 200 or so employees. The premiums stayed the same, [and] we didn't have to raise deductibles," Tracy said.

Facilities study

When Tracy was elected in 2010, he said the county considered buying the downtown federal building from the General Services Administration because of issues with its courthouses. He said the county maintains about nine properties, so it was thought the federal building in Cape Girardeau could be bought as a stopgap until a new courthouse was built in Jackson.

But funds were needed.

"We were able to capitalize on ... some interest rates that were coming down for bonds. We refinanced our jail bonds [and] were able to create a pool of money that we could use for capital improvement, i.e. [to] purchase this building should it become necessary. ... Off the top, we saved the county about $200,000 in bond payments and cut our interest rate in half," he said. "We refinanced from 4 down to 2 percent."

Ultimately, the county decided against buying the federal building and used the money for capital improvements, such as remodeling the county jail's kitchen that originally was built to support 30 inmates. It now provides about three hot meals a day for about 200 inmates.

St. Louis-based Treanor Architects was hired to conduct a facilities study to help determine the best way to provide services to residents with the "least amount of footprint."

A citizen advisory committee was formed, from which Tracy said commissioners expect to hear back in the next 30 to 60 days.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

388-3639