The town and the police officer’s union have agreed to a new four-year contract that awards sworn officers a general wage increase of 2.25 percent in the current year (retroactive to July 1, 2016), 2.35 percent in the second year (2017-18), 2.45 percent in the third year (2018-19), and 2.75 percent in the fourth year (2019-20).

A vote by the Board of Selectmen on Jan. 24 ratified the new four-year contract.

“One year ago when we started, we were talking a two-year contract because of the Cadillac tax. Now the changing political landscape allowed us to lock-in the labor piece for a four-year contract,” said First Selectman Carl Fortuna, Jr.

Negotiations on the police officers union contract began in July 2016.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) “Cadillac tax” refers to a 40 percent excise tax that was to be levied on employees’ health plan benefits that exceed $10,200 for an individual and $27,500 for a family per year. It was originally to go into effect in 2018, but in December 2015, an amendment to the ACA pushed the effective date of the tax to Jan. 1, 2020.

The recent political shifts in Washington, D.C., however, makes it increasingly unlikely that employers will ever face the Cadillac tax. Also, with this police officers union contract agreement, all town employees now are on High-Deductible Health Plans (HDHP) with Health Savings Accounts (HSA).

In the police deal, the officers’ HDHPs in the current contract’s first year (2016-’17) have a $1,500 individual and $3,000 family annual deductible. The town pays for 50 percent of the deductible. In 2017-’18, the HDHP will have a $2,000 individual and $4,000 family deductible and the town again covers 50 percent of the deductible. In 2018-’19, the HDHP deductible remains the same, but the town will fund 45 percent of it. Finally, in the contract’s last year, the deductible rises to $2,250 for individual and $4,500 for a family while the town again pays 45 percent of the deductible.

With this police union contract, all of the town’s unions have now agreed to be paid by the town on a bi-weekly instead of a weekly basis. The police union was the last town union to agree to bi-weekly instead of weekly paychecks.

“Bi-weekly payroll is something I’ve been working on with all of the town unions for five years. All have it now,” said Fortuna. “That was important to the town. It will save time and money when we bring payroll in-house sometime after July 1.”

July 1 is the date that the town will officially convert from the old Phoenix accounting software to the new SunGard Services accounting system, eFinancePlus

. The school district also plans to convert to the SunGard services system in phase two of this accounting project, putting both the town and the schools on the same system.

With all town employees now paid on a bi-weekly schedule, the town will save both money when issuing payroll, once the new accounting system conversion is complete by bringing payroll back in-house instead of contracting out for the service, as it does now.

The town also won union agreement in this contract to other terms that will help the town to save money going forward: Fewer town vehicles will be taken home by detectives under the new contract. For those that do take cars home, they will face limits on mileage between the station and their home. For current detectives, the limit will be 20 miles and for future detectives, 15 miles.

The contract was effective as soon as both the town and police officers union voted to ratify.