Local municipal leaders from around Southwest Michigan met Wednesday with Congressman Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, to alert him to the unanticipated financial hits their villages, townships and communities are facing as the result of the president’s health care bill.

The 15 municipal leaders told Upton that the taxes levied on the health care plans they offer employees are going to impact their bottom lines. And at least one said he doesn’t know right now where the extra money will be found.

“What are we going to do? I don’t know,” said Milt Richter, president of the village of Berrien Springs in Berrien County. “The Affordable Care Act isn’t as affordable as we thought it would be.”

Berrien Springs, which has 11 full-time employees, has been socked with additional health insurance tax cost of more than $980 per month as a result of the ACA.

“Our tax payers are going to have to be asked to pay more taxes,” Richter said during a press conference following the meeting. “That’s not going to make them happy.”

Other community leaders said they saw their health-related costs going up from a few thousand dollars a year to more than $75,000 annually as a result of taxes and costs related to the president’s health care plan.

Upton said he hopes other municipalities will let him know of the difficulties they are facing in order to look into fixing a health care plan that “has never been ready for primetime,” he said.

“The President always said if you like your health care plan you can keep it,” Upton said. “That’s how it was sold to the American people. Now we’re finding it’s not true.

“By hearing from our local municipalities and we collect their stories – and my colleagues around the country collect similar stories -- I am encouraged we can make some fixes.”