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2006 - 9 <br />LEE COUNTY <br />Committed Today for a Better Tomorrow <br />RESOLUTION <br />OPPOSING NCACC MEDICAID RELIEF <br />TASK FORCE PROPOSAL <br />WHEREAS, the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners ( NCACC) <br />Medicaid Task Force is proposing, as a remedy to ever increasing Medicaid costs, that <br />counties and towns forfeit their shares of the 1% Article 39 sales tax to the State of <br />North Carolina, that the counties indemnify the towns for the lost tax revenue as result <br />of such forfeitures, in return for the State assuming the counties' responsibility to pay <br />the local Medicaid costs; and <br />WHEREAS, as a result of the NCACC proposal, Lee County would lose $4.4 million <br />dollars per year in revenue in return for the State of North Carolina assuming Lee <br />County's Medicaid expense of $2.7 million dollars per year; and <br />WHEREAS, in all forty nine other states in the United States, Medicaid costs are a State <br />cost and responsibility rather than a county cost and responsibility; and <br />WHEREAS, the NCACC proposal calls for the local government to forfeit a local <br />revenue source in order to pay for what is a State responsibility; and <br />WHEREAS, the NCACC proposal shifts the political responsibility for adopting <br />additional taxes to cover the lost revenues to county boards which, in effect, is <br />subsidizing what should be a State costs; and <br />WHEREAS, the NCACC proposal calls for local governments to forfeit an existing local <br />revenue source at a time when the NCACC is fighting on behalf of its constituents to <br />find new revenue sources and options; and <br />WHEREAS, the NCACC proposal would redistribute the proceeds of the existing Article <br />39 sales tax, based on each county's Medicaid expenses in direct, contravention of the <br />NCACC Taxation and Finance Policy Statement which provides that "the Association <br />opposes the redistribution of existing revenues "; and <br />WHEREAS, that county governments would be required to adopt additional sales taxes <br />in order to hold harmless the municipalities located within the counties from the <br />revenues lost when the Article 39 sales taxes are forfeited to the State; and <br />WHEREAS, the NCACC proposal was endorsed by the Taxation and Finance <br />Committee and disapproved by the Human Resources Committee and action deferred <br />by the NCACC Board of Directors at it's February 16, 2006 meeting; and <br />• <br />