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Commissioners approve budget amendment to cover additional $158K

COLUMBUS—Rising costs of healthcare has caused the county’s cost of insurance coverage to rise 24.02 percent starting in January. 

The Polk County Board of Commissioners met Monday and heard from county manager Marche Pittman about the budget amendments needed to cover the increase. 

The additional increase is $158,634, of which the county had $26,450 budgeted. 

Commissioners approved a budget amendment for $132,185 to cover the increase in departments from January-June. The money was taken from the county’s fund balance and distributed to each department for health insurance. 

Polk County gets its health insurance from the North Carolina State Health Plan for teachers and state employees. 

Polk County was alerted in August that the employer contribution rate would be $532. 

On Dec. 2, the county was alerted that those rates had increased to $648 per employee after the state budget passed.