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other members of the General Assembly, the Governor and the North Caralina Association of <br />County Commissioners. <br />John Link said that they are proposing that the Board support this resolution. He said <br />that a lot of counties suffer because of Medicaid expenses and they think this is a reasonable <br />request to make. He asked Geof Gledhill to speak further to the other aspects of the resolution. <br />Geof Gledhill said that this expands the reason why the Board supports the cigarette tax <br />increase to include funding for Medicaid. The Board has already supported the increase in the <br />cigarette tax and the use of funds for that tax for a farmland preservation trust and creation of <br />value added products and other farming alternatives. The resolution adds Medicaid funding to <br />the request. <br />Commissioner Jacobs said that it is unfortunate that one of the County's representatives <br />chose not to use leverage far this and in fact voted against this bill. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis said it is sad that there is not enough intestinal fortitude in <br />Raleigh to help young people stay away from cigarettes. <br />A motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by Commissioner Gordon to <br />approve a resolution as stated below expressing Orange County's position on increasing the <br />state cigarette tax to support county Medicaid relief and farmland preservation and authorize the <br />Clerk to forward the resolution to Orange County's legislative delegation, all other members of <br />the General Assembly, the Governor and the North Caralina Association of County <br />Commissioners. <br />A RESOLUTION REGARDING INCREASING THE STATE CIGARETTE TAX TO SUPPORT <br />COUNTY MEDICAID RELIEF AND FARMLAND PRESERVATION <br />WHEREAS, only the states of New York and North Carolina require county governments <br />to participate in all the costs of Medicaid, and <br />WHEREAS, the state of New York recently took action to lower the costs of Medicaid to <br />its counties, and <br />WHEREAS, Medicaid costs far counties are far outstripping county governments' ability <br />to provide for those increases through the traditional source of flexible revenue - i.e., the <br />property tax, and <br />WHEREAS, Orange County will spend a projected $3.6 million in 2004-05 for Medicaid, <br />which equates to 3.56 cents an the property tax rate, and <br />WHEREAS, North Caralina counties have no opportunity under federal and state law to <br />control Medicaid expenditures, and <br />WHEREAS, a plan to completely phase out required county Medicaid expenditures is <br />desirable, and <br />WHEREAS, cigarette smoking contributes to health problems that increase Medicaid <br />costs, and <br />WHEREAS, the state of North Carolina has the lowest cigarette tax in the nation, and <br />WHEREAS, an increase in the state cigarette tax could yield significant funds to reduce <br />the county share of Medicaid, and <br />