Galveston County Commissioners’ plans to raise taxes to cover indigent health care is meeting opposition from the mayor of the county’s largest city.
In an e-mail to residents Monday, League City Mayor Toni Randall said the tax rate increase could hamper needed improvements in the city by making it harder for the council to sell its own tax rate increase for needed infrastructure improvements.
“There must be a better way to accomplish this rebuilding of UTMB without jeopardizing the future of our city and the residents of all Galveston County,” Randall said in the e-mail.
Randall is the first mayor in the county to voice opposition to the county’s plan to raise taxes in order to meet state required obligations for indigent health care that would trigger the construction of a new hospital tower at the University of Texas Medical Branch.
Other elected officials in a city that is home to 830 medical branch employees and where a $30 million specialty medical center is under construction also oppose the increase.
If commissioners decide in the coming weeks to raise the tax rate by up to 6 cents, League City may have trouble selling a potential tax rate increase to its taxpayers to pay for much-needed improvements, Mayor Pro Tem Tim Paulissen said.
League City residents have been clamoring for better drainage protection after scores of houses flooded during a thunderstorm in April.
The city is working on its 2009-10 budget.
Randall’s opposition to the county tax plan is in contrast to the opinion of the mayor of the city’s next largest city.
Texas City Mayor Matt Doyle, who two weeks ago said he would seek a resolution that his city support the creation of a hospital district when that was under consideration, said he still supports the commissioners court efforts.
“One of the reasons we did not raise our tax rate in Texas City was to support the county in supporting UTMB,” Doyle said. “I support personally any solution to this problem.
“It is worth 6 to 8 cents on the tax so that we are saving lives in Galveston County. Without it, we will lose lives.”
Doyle said he would consider putting a resolution before the Texas City commission to support the county commissioners’ plan.
Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas has voiced support for what ever direction county commissioners go, as did Galveston Councilwoman Elizabeth Beeton.
A majority of county commissioners at an Aug. 12 meeting pressed for a tax rate increase to fund hospital and specialty care for uninsured county residents at 100 percent of the federal poverty level.
If commissioners do that, the state will release $150 million earmarked for building a new hospital tower at the medical branch in Galveston and expanding services.
The University of Texas System has pledged another $200 million, and the Sealy and Smith Foundation has pledged $125 million to the project.
County Commissioner Ken Clark, whose precinct includes League City, said he would prefer giving the voters the option on voting on a tax rate increase. The law does not provide for that, however.
The tax rate increase, which would allow the county to avoid a vote on creating a hospital district, would fund secondary and tertiary care for county residents at 100 percent of the federal poverty standard. The cost of providing that care is expected to be $12 million to $15 million a year and require a tax increase of 6 cents to 8 cents per $100 of taxable value.
Randall and Paulissen argued Galveston County should partner with neighboring counties to come up with a regional funding approach to pay for indigent health care at the medical branch. Asking other counties to shoulder some of the burden for medical branch care will help cut down on taxes owed by Galveston County residents, Randall said.
Paulissen said while he doesn’t like the idea of the county raising the tax rate, he supports a tax rate increase over the creation of a hospital district.
Pointing to other hospital districts in Texas, which have tax rates as high as 75 cents per $100 valuation, Paulissen said he thought a Galveston County hospital district board would continue to increase the tax rate every year.
“You start at 6 cents and, eventually, you have this whole hierarchy of creating more taxes,” he said. “It would be a never-ending thing.”
+++
At A Glance
WHAT: County Commissioners meeting
WHEN: 9:30 a.m. today
WHERE: County Courthouse, 722 Moody in Galveston
ON AGENDA: Setting the dates for two public hearings to set the county tax rate
