News

Athens hopes to address its budget shortfall with a retirement program

By: Charlie Ihlenfeld
Posted on: Thursday, February 12, 2026

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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) – Athens city administration hopes to ease its budget shortfall with a new retirement incentive program.  

The program encourages older, retirement eligible city employees to retire by offering them $30,000 maximum to cover health care expenses over three years. Service Safety Director Andy Stone said the decision was motivated by anecdotal conversations with city employees and a desire to reduce the city’s number one expense: healthcare.  

Stone said he often hears from older employees, “Boy I’d like to retire, but I just can’t afford the healthcare. We think that this would be a tool that could maybe get people to make that decision.” 

Stone stressed that the city will not realize the full financial benefit of these early retirements because it may have to fill many of these positions again. But he believes the city would be able to hire younger employees who, on average, have lower healthcare costs.  

He estimated at most 18 city employees could take the offer to retire, and if all 18 did so, the cost to the city would be $540,000 over three years. However, the savings could be as high as $6.48 million dollars if the positions were eliminated, Stone said. 

“Obviously we’re not going to get remotely close to that,” said Stone. “Certainly, we’re going to have to replace some of those positions.” 

Stone offered three possibilities for the incentive program. First, the city would offer the retired employees a $10,000 per year stipend into a tax-free vehicle called a VEBA. A VEBA, also known as a voluntary employees’ beneficiary association, is a program that allows employees on an employer-sponsored healthcare plan to receive money for healthcare expenses on a tax-exempt basis.  

The second option would be a taxable $10,000 per year cash payment. The last option would be available to employees in OPERS, which is the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System. OPERS would offer some employees a credit buyout under the retirement program up to a maximum $30,000.  

Stone hopes to have the program up and running soon to give city employees the chance to decide by an April 15 deadline. He expressed wanting to give employees enough time to look at their finances and decide if the program makes sense for them. 

Councilmembers Beth Clodfelter and Jessica Thomas expressed support for the proposal.  

“I think for the reasons you just laid out, this makes a lot of sense,” said Clodfelter.  

“I appreciate the time and effort he has gone through to come up with this,” said Thomas. “I think these are really thoughtful, intentional and well thought out ways we could address city finances.”  

The proposal was advanced in committee, and it will receive its first reading at Monday’s council member.