BY ANDY GARDNER
North Country This Week

CANTON -- After hearing concerns from the public, St. Lawrence County legislators voted down a resolution to reimburse retirees for prescription drug costs once per year instead of twice. They tabled a second motion to raise retiree drug co-pays over the next four years. The board plans to revisit that in December.

The board took the actions during their Monday, Oct. 5 monthly meeting streamed live on YouTube.

The board heard from two people during public comment, and received three written comments urging the legislators to vote against the two measures.

The motion dealing with reimbursements was voted down 10-5. Yes votes came from Republicans Jim Reagen, Dave Forsythe, Joe Lightfoot, Bill Sheridan and Kevin Acres. No votes were cast by Republicans Harry Smithers, Larry Denesha, Rita Curran and John Burke, along with Democrats Rick Perkins, Dan Fay, Margaret Haggard, Suzanne Fiacco, Tony Arquiett and Nicole Terminelli.

During public comment, Elizabeth List of Potsdam told the legislators that the two measures would create a financial hardship on retirees. She said they lived on fixed income that “drifts further away each year from being commensurate with the increasing cost of living.”

Amy Simmonds of Fowler told the board that some retirees are faced with having to “choose between eating, going to the doctors, and buying their prescriptions.”

That comment resonated with some of the legislators who voted against the reimbursement change.

“As recently as a couple hours ago, I was in favor of this revision,” Denesha said prior to voting. “One of the folks said something that struck a chord with me. They echoed what I said before. In this country, in this state, people shouldn’t have to choose between groceries, shouldn’t have to choose between whether to heat their house … to buy their meds or not.”

“We’ve got people out there deciding on their heat, prescriptions or food. I won’t be supporting this resolution,” said Arquiett.

Acres pointed out that although the reimbursement schedule would change, the retirees would still receive the same amount of money annually instead of in two payments.

“The amount of money would not be reduced by changing it from two payments to one,” he said. “It would be up to the individual to balance that out … I don’t think this creates any additional hardship.”

Forsythe called the proposed change “Nothing catastrophic. I’ll support this for everyone that doesn’t receive this benefit,” he said.

Denesha then offered a resolution tabling the co-pay increases until December, “based on numerous conversations based on some of the presenters this evening, and again as well as looking at some of the co-pays.”

“I would offer a motion to table this resolution so we can check with neighboring counties, counties the same size as we are, and table it until the full board meeting in December so we can have some better information,” Denesha said.

It passed 12-3, with Arquiett, Burke and Haggard voting no.