Montgomery County is devoting about twice as much of its police and firefighter payrolls to workers’ compensation claims than a decade ago, according to records obtained by The Washington Examiner.
Nearly $8 of every $100 spent on compensation in the fire department goes directly to payments for those who say they are unable to work, up 80 percent from 10 years ago. For police, the cost of the claims increased 130 percent during the same period, figures compiled by the county Department of Finance show.
County analysts point to a surge in disability claims, coupled with increases in cost of living and medical expenses, as the cause of the towering financial commitment — the county paid more than $17 million just for claims filed by general government workers last fiscal year.
| Montgomery workers’ comp cost per $100 of payroll | |||
| Fire and Rescue | Police | ||
| FY02 | $4.41 | $2.20 | |
| FY03 | $4.99 | $2.25 | |
| FY04 | $5.68 | $2.93 | |
| FY05 | $6.36 | $3.35 | |
| FY06 | $7.05 | $4.23 | |
| FY07 | $6.48 | $3.91 | |
| FY08 | $5.54 | $3.70 | |
| FY09 | $6.40 | $4.59 | |
| FY10 | $6.84 | $4.56 | |
| FY11 | $7.93 | $5.02 | |
But the county’s top leader hasn’t lost confidence in the legitimacy of the system.
“I don’t have a question about the claims,” said County Executive Ike Leggett, attributing the escalating costs to “more rain, ice and snow” and other dangers that public safety workers have encountered in recent years. Still, he labeled the trend a “significant increase we need to monitor.”
However, some within county government who were not authorized to speak publicly called the growing obligations alarming — and questioned many of the claims — amid mounting deficits.
Montgomery firefighters were twice as likely to file a “lost-time claim” than their counterparts in Fairfax County, figures from last fiscal year show. Montgomery CountyStat, the suburb’s data-driven oversight agency, found that 18 percent of the suburb’s firefighters filed cases compared with 8.5 percent in Fairfax County.
For years, Montgomery officials have complained the system shells out millions of dollars to able-bodied employees — they recently passed legislation altering the medical panel that reviews the cases — and say lack of oversight casts a shadow over legitimate claims. As The Examiner first reported, more than three times as many county firefighters applied for disability payments in recent months than were awarded the financial perk the entire year before.
Inspector General Thomas Dagley concluded that “a prudent person would consider [the disability claims] abusive.” He found more than 60 percent of officers retired with a disability pension in a recent three-year period.
Under the current system, police officers and general government
employees are given two-thirds of their annual salary in a tax-free pension. The county is facing a more than $300 million shortfall next fiscal year.
