The Galveston County Daily News

As county commissioners consider putting the creation of a hospital district up for a vote in November, one of the county’s mayors is endorsing the idea.

Texas City Mayor Matt Doyle said Wednesday he will present a resolution backing the creation of a hospital district to the city commission at its next meeting.

Doyle’s brother, County Commissioner Pat Doyle, has suggested raising the county tax rate to pay for secondary and tertiary health care at 100 percent of the federal poverty level as an alternative to a hospital district.

The cost of providing care at that level is expected to be $12 million to $15 million — an increase of 6 to 8 cents per $100 of assessed value.

While noting the importance of the health care the University of Texas Medical Branch provides to the county and region, Matt Doyle’s support for the hospital district is more basic.

“It’s about jobs for me,” Doyle said. “If BP or Marathon were leaving the city and taking those jobs with them and we could save those jobs by raising the tax rate 8 cents, I’d push for raising the taxes.”

Doyle said he wasn’t sure what support he would have from the city commission, but as the debate rages on the merits of creating a hospital district, he said now was not the time to be sitting on the fence.

“I want to bring this home,” he said. “It’s probably wrong that we are having a gun held to our head by the Legislature, but this gives us a peace of mind we have grown accustomed to.”

Doyle is the first of the county’s mayors to formally announce he would put support for a hospital district up for a resolution.

While voicing support for saving the medical branch, Galveston elected leaders have yet to take formal action on a resolution. A city spokeswoman said so far there have been no requests for a resolution before the city council and the city attorney had not been asked to draft a resolution.