In 2018, the Mehlville Fire Protection District Board of Directors changed the maximum amount of sick leave from six months to three months. After three months, long-term disability would kick in.

Before that change, employees would receive a taxable 100-percent wage in months four, five and six. Chief Financial Officer Brian Bond estimated employees would end up with 68-75 percent of their salaries. Under disability however, employees receive 60 percent non-taxable wages, a drop from sick leave of the past. To fix that issue, MFPD added supplemental payment out of its own budget in those latter three months.

“We had great intentions and everything was good, until it wasn’t,” Bond said. “We realized after that a payment from the district would be considered an offset by the long-term disability insurance coverage. In other words, they would reduce the amount they were paying the employee by the amount they were getting from us.”

This resulted in employees exchanging non-taxable money for taxable money. 

To fix this issue, the board approved an amendment from the insurance carrier to remove the offset issue, at the cost of $161 a month.