DALTON, Ga. — A statewide debate over whether to expand Medicaid, the joint federal-state program that funds health care for low-income individuals, is also an issue in a local state Senate campaign.

State Sen. Chuck Payne, R-Dalton, and Democrat Michael Morgan of Whitfield County squared off Thursday night at Dalton’s Mack Gaston Community Center as part of a candidates forum conducted by the League of Women Voters of the Dalton Area.

The two are in the Nov. 6 general election for state Senate District 54, which covers all of Whitfield and Murray counties and parts of Gordon and Pickens counties.

Payne, who is retired from the state Department of Juvenile Justice, said he opposes calls for Georgia to expand Medicaid coverage to all adults under 65 earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Currently, Georgia limits Medicaid coverage only to people who meet certain criteria, such as parents of minor children or pregnant women. The left-leaning Georgia Budget and Policy Institute estimates some 473,000 Georgians would gain health insurance under the expansion. The federal government would cover 90 percent of the cost of the expansion. 

“We need to stop relying so much on the federal government,” said Payne. “That $22 trillion debt? That’s you and me, and it’s only going to get worse if we don’t put a stop to the spending.”

But Morgan, a lab manager, favors such an expansion.

“Yes, there’s a cost to the expansion, but there’s also a cost to so many people being without health insurance,” he said.

The two also differed on whether state lawmakers should create a nonpartisan body to draw legislative district maps. Payne said that was something that should continue to be done by the Legislature. Morgan said the party in control of the Legislature will draw the lines to favor itself no matter whether Democrats or Republicans are in control.

Both said they are opposed to civil forfeiture, in which law enforcement can seize cash and property from people who have not been convicted of, or in many cases even charged with, a crime.

The forum also featured Jamie Johnson and Terry Ross, who are in a special Republican primary for the Whitfield County Board of Education seat for District 2, also on Nov. 6. The primary was required after Rodney Lock, who had held the seat, resigned in May shortly after the Republican primary in which he was the only candidate.

Johnson, a captain with the Dalton Police Department, was appointed by a Whitfield County grand jury to fill Lock’s unexpired term, which ends Dec. 31. There will be a general election for a four-year term for that seat in March of next year but no Democrat qualified so the winner of the Republican primary will most likely win the seat.

Johnson said his experience in law enforcement will help him advise the school system on one of the most high-profile problems school officials across the country are dealing with: school safety.

Johnson, who has two students in the school system, said one thing officials may have to look at is mental illness. 

“A lot of these active shooters we find out later have some sort of mental illness,” he said.

Ross, who owns Rave Carpets and has four grandchildren in the school system, previously served on the board for 11 years. He said one of the issues he would focus on is getting the high school graduation rate, currently about 93 percent, up.

“We need to have more academic coaches who can identify and work with students who are at risk of not graduating,” said Ross.