Skyrocketing retiree health care costs will endanger every level of government in the future – including Mohawk Valley municipalities.

Everywhere, public employees are locked into rock solid retiree health care plans, experts say. Baby boomers hired in the 1960s and 1970s for jobs, including police officers, firefighters, teachers and garbage collectors, are retiring in waves.

And if local governments do not set aside money now for these costs, they may have to make so many cuts to future services that they would essentially be decimated, experts say.

The other side could be an increase in taxes to balance out the cost of these benefits.

“Poor fiscal management means the taxpayers are going to get slammed at some point,” said Samuel Fleet, president and chief executive officer of AmWINS Group Benefits of Warwick, R.I.

An extensive Freedom of Information Law request by the O-D revealed that few local layers of government even know how much they will owe in the future. Interviews also showed those who realize the magnitude of the problem are unprepared for it.

Of the 10 local governments queried by the O-D, only the town of New Hartford and Oneida and Herkimer counties had completed studies recommended by the state and federal governments that show the extent of the expense.

A recently released University at Buffalo study on the issue says the sooner local governments take action to deal with the problem, the better…

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