GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1995

S	1 

SENATE BILL 1238

Short Title:  Consolidation Incentive Funding.	(Public)

─────────────────────────────────────── 
Sponsors: Senators Cooper; Martin of Guilford, Hartsell, and Forrester.

─────────────────────────────────────── 
Referred to:  Appropriations.

─────────────────────────────────────── 

May 21, 1996

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO PROMOTE EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS IN THE LOCAL PUBLIC HEALTH DELIVERY SYSTEM BY APPROPRIATING FUNDS TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH, AND NATURAL RESOURCES TO CREATE INCENTIVES FOR SMALL COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENTS TO FORM DISTRICT HEALTH DEPARTMENTS.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  (a)	Six million dollars ($6,000,000) is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources and shall be credited to a nonreverting account within the Department.  Funds in the account shall establish a local public health infrastructure fund to promote the formation of district public health departments through the provision of incentive funding according to the allocation formula as provided for in this section.
(b)	Counties with populations of 75,000 or less shall be eligible to receive incentive funding.  Counties with populations above 75,000 and district health departments in existence on the effective date of this act shall be eligible for incentive funds only if they district with a county with a population of 75,000 or less.  Incentive funds shall be allocated according to the following allocation formula:  (i) two dollars ($2.00) per capita per year shall be allocated for each county or each existing district with a minimum allocation of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) per year per county or district and a maximum allocation of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) per year per county or district; (ii) funding shall be limited to three consecutive yearly allocations; (iii) incentive funds shall be granted only after adoption of resolutions to create the new district health department in accordance with G.S. 130A-36.  Disbursement of funds shall be initiated at the beginning of the fiscal year following the creation of the new district health department.
Any county that receives incentive funding pursuant to this section shall return one-third of the total incentive funding received if the county leaves the district in order to operate as a single county health department.
(c)	Population of counties under this section is based on the 1990 decennial federal census.
Sec. 2.  The State Health Director shall report on the progress of the infrastructure fund in promoting the formation of new district health departments to the Public Health Study Commission, as created under Article 22 of Chapter 120 of the General Statutes, on or before December 15, 1996, and annually for three consecutive years thereafter, at a date and time determined by the Commission.
Sec. 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 1996.