To the Editor:

It is my understanding that the state legislature and the governor are at an impasse over the state budget because of a refusal by the General Assembly to expand Medicaid, which Gov. Roy Cooper has strongly supported. 

Here’s the thing: For the past five years North Carolina taxpayers have paid $8.3 billion in federal taxes to support the cost of expanding Medicaid in 36 other states and the District of Columbia. But our legislators refuse to take action to provide coverage to over 464,000 North Carolinians, which federal funding will fund up to 90 percent.

Expanding Medicaid would make health care available to many working North Carolina adults whose employers offer neither health insurance nor wages sufficient to purchase coverage on the private market. Many of these working adults are parents whose lack of health care directly affects their children, often resulting in poor school performance and a less promising future.

The injection of billions of dollars of federal funding into the economy will spur North Carolina’s business activity and create an estimated 34,000 jobs in this year, 2020. With Medicaid expansion, at least 665 additional people in Macon County would be covered, more jobs and more tax revenue would be created.

And also in this unpassed state budget is a plan for retired school personnel to receive a one-time .5 percent bonus. You read that right: 5 tenths of a percent ... bonus. The Macon County North Carolina Retired School Personnel have asked for a cost-of-living increase to try to keep up with inflation. For our efforts, we have received a 1 percent increase three times in 10 years, yet the cumulative inflation over that time period has been 18.10 percent. 

We didn’t serve the children of North Carolina in order to become rich, but it would be a real bonus if we retirees could keep up with inflation.

Nancy Scott 

Franklin