Morrison County receives dividend

LITTLE FALLS - Morrison County will receive a dividend of $148,162 from the Minnesota Counties Insurance Trust, it was reported Tuesday in a news release.

The dividend will be broken out to $52,685 for workers' compensation and $95,477 for property casualty.

MCIT is an organization that allows counties to self-insure workers' compensation and property/liability insurance through a pooling arrangement. MCIT was created by counties in 1985 when insurance was unavailable or not cost effective. There are 83 Minnesota counties that participate in MCIT which is sponsored by the Association of Minnesota Counties.

The recent dividend was possible due to better than expected performance results. The dividend is a reflection of the county's long-term commitment to reducing losses. Since counties are self-insuring these risks, there is a much greater sensitivity to controlling losses. It was reported that Morrison County believes that real progress is being made toward reducing the cost of claims which becomes a direct savings to the taxpayer.

MCIT declared a total dividend of $13 million to its member counties in 2009. This marks the 19th year MCIT has been able to return a dividend to members.