(A) Every fiscal year the State Treasurer shall withhold from the portion of the Local Government Fund allotted to the counties a sum equal to fifty cents per capita based on the population of the several counties as shown by the latest official census of the United States. The money withheld by the State Treasurer must be placed to the credit of the commission and used to provide Title XIX (Medicaid) services.

(B) County governments are assessed an additional thirteen million dollars annually for use as matching funds for Medicaid services. Of these funds, seven and a half million dollars must be deposited into the Medicaid Expansion Fund created by Section 44-6-155.

The department shall assess each county its share of the thirteen million dollars based on a formula which equally weighs the following factors in each county: property value, personal income, net taxable sales, and the previous two years of claims against the medically indigent assistance fund or program against county residents. If a trust fund has been established in a county to fund indigent care in the county, contributions on behalf of the county must be credited against the county assessment.

(C) Within thirty days of the first day of the state's fiscal year, and on the first day of the other three quarters, each county shall remit one-fourth of its total assessment to the department. The department shall allow a brief grace period during which late payments are not subject to interest or penalty.

Any county which fails to pay its assessment within the time allotted must pay, in addition to the assessment, a penalty of five percent of the assessment and interest at one and one-half percent per month from the date the assessment was originally due to the date of the payment of the assessment and penalty. The department may in its discretion waive or reduce the penalty or interest or any part thereof.

HISTORY: 1989 Act No. 189, Part II, Section 35B; 1991 Act No. 171, Part II, Section 22K; 1993 Act No. 181, Section 1049.