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Commissioner’s Corner
Medicaid
funding to hurt counties statewide
The fall season has officially appeared. Although one wouldn’t have
known it the last week or so of September with temperatures in the
80’s. Now at the end things are more back to normal weather wise. It is
now starting to look and feel like fall with the temperatures, and
farmers starting to harvest beans and some corn. Sad to say, but it
won’t be long till winter rears its ugly head.
This month has been a mixed bag in the Commissioner’s Office, mostly
just routine business. One issue that is on the horizon in the near
future is the State Senate and the Governor reached a possible
tentative agreement on the Medicaid Managed Care Organization (MCO)
sales tax funding bill. Much to the dismay of every county in Ohio,
this will only provide about 25% of what is needed; with the
possibility if things go well the funding to counties could rise to
about 39% of previous levels. This is a huge loss for every county in
Ohio. The State was going to lose about 207 million dollars, so they
decided to take it from the Counties, Cities, and Townships local
government funds. After getting defeated in the house, the senate and
the Governor tried to work out a compromise. The compromise was the
State would give the Counties 50 million now, and MAYBE 30 million next
year. With the State not paying their mandated full share of Indigent
defense (providing a lawyer for those who cannot afford one), and the
State not sure how much they will help with the cost of elections and
new equipment, this puts a real bind on all counties. We are looking at
what we need to do to cover this loss to Darke County.
In other happenings, on the 8th of September, Business Administrator
John Cook and Commissioner Stegall went to Columbus for our annual
CEBCO (County Employees Benefit Consortium) meeting for health
insurance. Once again, because of our employees’ attention to their own
health with the assistance of our Health and Wellness group, our
premium showed a very modest increase. Darke County was below the State
average again for the 7th straight year. Thank you to our Wellness team
and our employees for doing their part in keeping our premiums
manageable.
The Darke County Visitors Bureau hosted the State Visitors Bureau
Convention in Greenville on the 20th. Matt Staugler, the Darke County
Visitors Bureau Director, had a full slate planned for the other
counties including a nice dinner at the Bistro (Thank You Ted Abney and
crew!) and a late evening visit to The Kitchen-aid store.
Thanks to Matt for doing his best to expose Darke County to the rest of
the State and Country.
September has come and gone and with it starts the fall season. Now
would be a good time to come to one of our meetings. We meet every
Monday and Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. in the Commissioner’s Office, 520
South Broadway in Greenville, just south of the Courthouse. Plan on
coming to one of our meetings, and we hope to see you there!
The Darke County Commissioners
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