JACKSON -- Cape Girardeau County received a check recently from the Missouri Association of Counties -- a dividend return from the association's Self-Insured Workers' Compensation Fund.

The $8,631 check represented 14 percent of the county's premium for workers' comp coverage and will be used to offset the cost of this year's premium.

"What we're really talking about is the return of taxpayer dollars," County Clerk Rodney Miller, chairman of the association's insurance board, said. "The key is that the member counties' dollars reserved to pay claims are sitting in their accounts. What is generally a profit incentive for an insurance company is now a savings for the counties belonging to the pool."

The large dividend return was based on a very successful 1993 premium year. It takes a full year to audit each county and determine how much each should receive in dividends.

Currently 85 out of 114 Missouri counties have enrolled in the association's program. The workers' comp fund was established in 1987.