By NICOLE CARTRETTE

Despite the huge toll Medicaid takes on the state’s poorest counties, the General Assembly has not included relief in its draft budget. Columbus County officials are repeating their plea for the Legislature to fund the state-mandated Medicaid contribution that consumes nearly one-third of local tax revenue.

North Carolina is the last state in the country that requires local governments to pay a fixed share of Medicaid, the federal health safety net for the poor. Because Columbus has a small tax base and many sick and elderly residents, Medicaid takes a disproportionate share of property taxes.

Columbus County has one of the highest Medicaid-eligible populations in the state, with nearly one in three residents eligible. For every 73 cents collected in property taxes, 21 cents goes to county Medicaid expenses, Commission Chairman Kip Godwin said. The county’s estimated 15-percent contribution for fiscal 2007 is $6.3 million, an increase of 70 percent since 2000, he said.

Commissioners argue that freeing even some of the local Medicaid contribution would allow them to better fund public schools, the community college and other county services.

“We can’t grow because we are cash-strapped,” said Commissioner David Dutton Monday. Dutton urged county residents to call members of the Legislature and tell them to find ways for the state to pay the Medicaid expenses.

“They (state lawmakers) are part of the problem of high taxes in the county,” Dutton said.

Dutton said he found it odd that local legislators are supporting a moratorium on landfills, including one that would essentially make money for Columbus County. The county could afford to have its own local landfill if lawmakers would eliminate the Medicaid burden, he said.

Proposals have been introduced in both the House and Senate calling for Medicaid relief. Both remain in committee and have not been added to the budget, Rep. Dewey Hill said. Hill is hopeful the House will be successful in “getting as much relief” as possible.

Tuesday Hill met with Jim Crawford, one of seven House appropriations committee chairmen. “There is a lot of support,” Hill said. “We are pushing real hard.”

The measure “needs to get in the budget,” Hill pointed out.

House Bill 1968 would cap Columbus County’s Medicaid share at last year’s costs –roughly $5.8 million and further reduces the county’s share with savings from the Medicare drug program, Commissioner Godwin said.

Senate Bill 1209 also caps county Medicaid costs at the 2005-2006 fiscal year’s share and calls for extra appropriations to counties in need.

“We want to do everything we can,” Sen. R.C. Soles Jr. said. It involves “such a huge amount of money that we have to be careful not to cause” other programs to go without funding, he said.

The legislation calls for 40 percent of more than $34.5 million to go to counties with 25 percent or more of the population on Medicaid.

News Editor Lee Hinnant contributed to this story.