ROCKY MOUNT -- Starting in July 2012, the town will cover health insurance expenses only for council members and not their dependents, the town council decided Monday.

If a council member wants to add a dependent, he or she has to pay the additional expenses -- about $120 a month -- out of pocket. The current employee-only plan, which council members can choose to participate in, costs the town about $179 a month, Town Manager James Ervin said.

The issue of health insurance for council members came up in 2009, when the late Councilman Posey Dillon asked the council to look into it because he didn't want potential candidates to run only for the health insurance.

New Councilman Bobby Cundiff questioned the expense at Monday's budget work session. Medical and dental insurance costs for council members in the 2011-12 proposed budget are $21,565.

Cundiff said council members shouldn't receive the benefit and he's thought so since the town began offering it in 2004.

"Council is elected," he said. "We're not full-time employees."

The benefit has cost taxpayers more than $139,000 over the past six years, Cundiff said.

Mayor Steve Angle proposed the compromise that council members are still entitled to the employee-only plan paid for by the town, but the addition of any dependents is at the expense of the council member.

Council members Robert Strickler, Jerry Greer, Greg Walker and Ann Love voted for the compromise. Cundiff and Councilman Bobby Moyer voted against it.

"Having the council member only, that's reasonable," Moyer said. "But adding family is too much on the taxpayer."

"When I was elected, it [health insurance] was offered and I took it," said Strickler, who added that he has his wife on his plan as well.

Strickler said he was fine with the change but thought it wouldn't be fair to change it in the middle of some council members' terms.

It's not clear how many council members participate in the town's health insurance benefit.

The council will meet at 6 p.m. May 9 for another budget work session to discuss proposed water and sewer rate increases, the cigarette tax and a pay raise for town employees.