The Carbon County retirement board discussed a bill weaving its way through the state that would change the cost of living increase requirements on counties.

Robert Crampsie, county controller and secretary to the board said currently the cost of living increase requirements are retroactive.That means if the county misses a year or two in cost of living increases to retirees, and then decides to give a cost of living increase the third year, the county is required to also give cost of living increases the two missed years as well.Crampsie said that if the cost for the increase would be $250,000 for one year, now it would be tripled to make up for the two years that were missed, causing a total bill of $750,000."You get to the point that if you hit some tough times and can't give a raise for a year and then don't give it the following year, you get to the point where you wonder if you will ever be able to give one again because of it being retroactive," Crampsie said.The bill would allow counties to give an increase for just that year."It would drastically reduce the funding requirement necessary to giving that cost of living increase," Crampsie said.Commissioners said they heard from retirees who are looking at the portfolio value, which currently stands at over $73.5 million."We had retirees saying the fund is doing fantastic so why can't we give them an increase, but it's not that simple," Commissioner William O'Gureksaid."They look at $73 million but when you go retroactive that is a big cost to the county," Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard said.In addition, Crampsie referenced the first four months investment performance report, which show that employees contributed $177,537 in 2014; and the county paid out $1.7 million to retirees so far."You can see what we have in that fund and that the cash flow is negative," he told the board.For example, the total disbursements for the month of April alone was $547,313.95.