The Galveston County Daily News

If you are looking for the most significant thing about Gov. Rick Perry’s visit to Galveston last week, here it is: “I know the people of the island are very grateful to a state that saved their major employer,” the governor said.

“If I know the people of this island, I suspect they will be willing to respond appropriately and as fully as they can.”

Perry, of course, was in town to sign a bill giving the University of Texas Medical Branch $150 million in recovery funds. He’d previously signed a bill authorizing $150 million in tuition revenue bonds to finance a 200-bed tower next to John Sealy Hospital. All of that money had been approved by the Legislature. The governor’s visit was just a chance to celebrate that achievement.

But his comment about the people here being “willing to respond appropriately” was a reminder that state leaders have said, over and over again, that Galveston County must have a hospital district — or some way to fund its fair share of the care for underinsured county residents who end up at the state institution.

During the next two years, the state will provide $566.5 million for the medical branch from its general fund. That’s an increase of $109 million.

While the governor declined to give details about what he would consider an appropriate response, it’s clear from past discussions of other state leaders that the minimum amount is somewhere around $15 million.

The questions about how the local share will be covered — whether by a hospital district or by earmarking more county money to cover expenses for county residents who can’t pay their medical bills — are politically loaded. Some people in the northern part of the county are more or less openly campaigning against any taxing district that extends into their neighborhoods.

Yet state lawmakers have already shown they can cut budgets as well as increase them. Failing to provide, say, $15 million in local funds to match a $109 million increase in state funds, just isn’t a good idea.