During one work session in March, American Fork City administrator Craig Whitehead handed the City Council and mayor a spreadsheet. The first line of the spreadsheet, which was titled “Budget Expenditure Potentially Impacting Property Tax,” detailed a budget deficit for Fiscal Year ending in June 2014 of $900,000.

The hard-to-swallow news was, at this point, an estimate, Mr. Whitehead cautioned. He wasn’t finished with going through department requests, he said, and was looking at more ways to reduce costs.

Still, the main culprit for the sudden spike in expenditure is the Affordable Care Act, which takes effect in 2014. Starting next year, employees who work at least 30 hours a week are classified as full-time and entitled to employer provided health insurance benefits. Any work would have to be counted. If a firefighter carried a pager for an hour, the City would have to count that as an hour worked. There are 12 part-time firefighters in American Fork who continually go over the 30 hours, according to Fire Chief Kriss Garcia, a cost that would tack on $356,800 to the budget. 

The timing of this provision creates a conundrum for the mayor and two other City Council members, who are up for reelection this year. Mayor James H. Hadfield acknowledged that an increase in property tax to balance the budget could mean they may not “see the same faces” at City Hall next year. If the mandate is ignored, however, the City will have to pay a quarter million dollars in penalty alone.

One option, according to Cathy Jensen, the City’s Finance Officer, is to reduce the number of part-time positions and replace them with (fewer) full-time employees, as full-timer can work more hours per week for the same benefits. Ms. Jensen said the Obamacare-related net increase would still stand at $257,300.

Operationally, part-time positions are difficult to fill, and the Fire Department currently can’t find enough part-time employees to fill the schedule, according to Chief Garcia. Holding a part-time job when a full-time one is desired is frustrating for workers, and not only because fewer hours means less income. Like temp workers, part-timers are also less likely to get benefits and are more likely to be stuck with unpredictable schedules that make it hard to plan for child care, transportation or even a second part-time job. In the last few months, the Fire Department has lost three valuable employees, taken by agencies that offered full-time positions. 

It’s too early to tell if the City will increase property tax, but it is hard to see how it can not. (The City hasn’t increased property tax since 2008.) But with both Obamacare and a mayoral election looming, managing the public-relation backlash will be akin to walking a tight rope.

While some small businesses, including Olive Garden, have threatened to turn full-time positions into part-time ones to avoid providing health-care insurance for its employees next year, the City wants to do the opposite with its Fire Department, essentially removing the only remaining legal form of discrimination present in the labor market: After all, a part-time worker and full-time worker are doing the same job. But they have been compensated differently.

Danny Crivello can be reached at crivello@citizen.af, via cell at 801-477-6397 or on Twitter.

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