ESSEX COUNTY — New Jersey government employees contribute 1.5 percent of their salaries toward their health-care benefits. Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. said today it's not enough.

During an afternoon news conference, DiVincenzo called on the Legislature to take it a big step further, requiring employees to pay a percentage of their actual premiums instead of a smaller portion of their salaries.

"The 1.5 percent ... was a good start, but it hardly is making a dent in the payments we have to make," he said.

DiVincenzo is advocating a sliding scale that’s been effect since 2008 for Essex County’s non-union employees: Those earning $50,000 or less pay 10 percent of their premium, those making $50,000 to $70,000 pay 15 percent; workers making $70,000 to $150,000 pay 20 percent, and those making more than $150,000 pay 25 percent.

"We’re fair," DiVincenzo said of the formula.

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He took the occasion — with the promise of a "blast fax" to follow — to underscore a $56 million gap in his latest 2011 budget proposal, a deficit he attributed primarily to rising health care and pension costs and one that must be faced regardless of any legislative push, should one emerge.

In a breakout released by DiVincenzo’s office, an Essex employee earning $70,000 now pays $1,050 for a traditional family medical plan that costs $34,260. If that employee paid 20 percent of the premium, he’d contribute $6,266 or have the option of a point-of-service plan costing him $2,467.

Late today, state Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex) took issue with the higher contributions for lower wage workers.

"Even that’s a hit for those people," Codey said.

He, too, questioned a legislative remedy. "He can just negotiate those things," Codey said of contract talks with Essex unions.

It was a sentiment echoed by David Weiner, who as president of Communications Workers of America Local 1081 represents about 650 county workers. "This is something that should be negotiated, not legislated," Weiner said.

In Essex County, the change would bring in $6.7 million, compared to the $4 million now raised via the 1.5 percent contributions — still a small dent in a county with a $116 million tab for health and pension costs and a $375 million tax levy.

Health care premiums are projected to increase $9.2 million in 2011, to $72 million. "They say are claims are high," DiVincenzo said of the insurers.

Today’s news conference came a day after President Obama issued far-reaching rules, based on the new health-care law, that require insurers to spend at least $4 of every $5 they collect in premiums directly for the cost of medical services.

"Something has got to be done with the insurance companies," DiVincenzo said. "Just like everybody is being slapped down, they have to be slapped down."

On the budget front, DiVincenzo said he has instructed his division directors to trim expenses anew by Dec. 3, ahead of a final budget unveiling.

Again, he underscored his efforts to pump up annual revenue, bringing in $40 million alone by taking in federal inmates at the correctional facility and out-of-county detainees at the youth house and patients at the county hospital.