Brief county by Katherine Nettles

Risk-sharing pool carrying surplus

Gunnison County commissioners received an annual update on county-based losses and hazards based on their participation in Colorado Technical Counties Casualty Property Pool, a risk-sharing pool for counties in Colorado that acts like an insurance policy. Dana Foley, senior loss control specialist with Colorado Services, Inc., said the worker’s compensation pool and property casualty and general liability pool have healthy, multi-million dollar surpluses, and a grand total of $149,660 was returned to Gunnison County last year. 

This softened the blow of a 24% increase in rates, as the county’s contribution went from $721,000 in 2022 to $896,000 in 2023. The net increase was about 7% after the return. Foley said the county’s overall loss ratio was on the lower end, “which is a good thing,” and county employee injury claims tend to be car-related or based on slip-and-fall or lifting related incidents. Road and bridge, administration and law enforcement had the highest frequency and severity of injuries over the past five years.