MOULTRIE, Ga. — Colquitt County Commission on Thursday postponed discussion of pay increases or bonuses for employees and approved doubling the tobacco penalty charged for health insurance to nearly $200 per month.

Some commissioners questioned the increase, which would bring the cost of the tobacco penalty to $93 each bi-weekly pay period.

Next year will be the third year that the county has charged employees who light up or dip. It increased from $23.08 in 2015 to $46.16 beginning in January 2016 and will double again in 2017 at $93.32.

County Administrator Chas Cannon told commissioners that there are no plans to hit employees with an additional increase in 2018.

A comparison by the Taylor Benefit Resources, the Thomasville third party administrator of the county’s health care plan, indicated that tobacco users’ insurance claims are more than 28 percent greater than those of their non-smoking co-workers.

The average annual claims for tobacco users is $7,523, compared at $5,837, Cannon said.

“Additionally, tobacco users represent 14 percent of the total claims, but make up only 6 percent of the total population of the plan,” he said.

Four of five present: Commission Chairman Terry Clark and Commissioners Johnny Hardin, Mark DeMott and Paul Nagy approved the increase, with Commissioner Chris Hunnicutt, not casting a vote.

The five unanimously voted to increase the fee for no-shows at the Kirk Clinic, the primary care facility for county employees, from $15 to $25 for each appointment missed without giving notification to the office.

Employees who enroll in tobacco-cessation programs offered at no cost are not charged the penalty, Cannon said. And if they test nicotine-free at the end of the program they are no longer charged the penalty.

Cannon said that unlike some other government entities Colquitt County will interview and hire tobacco users, but that the extra money coming out of their paychecks once hired will be an inducement for them to quit using tobacco.

“We want as large a pool of potential employees as we can get,” he said.

On the issue of increasing employee compensation or giving a one-time bonus check to employees commissioners decided to wait until next year to discuss the subject.