GALVESTON — The economic blow of 3,800 layoffs at the University of Texas Medical Branch will do more damage to Galveston County than Hurricane Ike, local leaders said Tuesday.
University of Texas System regents approved the layoffs after meeting for hours behind closed doors in El Paso, where they discussed financial problems besetting the medical branch.
Hurricane Ike flooded many medical branch buildings, including John Sealy Hospital, when it came ashore Sept. 13. The storm caused about $710 million in unexpected expenses for the institution, which operates a medical school, research centers and health care facilities, employing about 8,000 people at its island campus.
It would take the community years to recover from such a massive layoff at the county’s largest employer, Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said. It might never recover, she said.
County Judge Jim Yarbrough called the news a “gut shot” that could take the area from recession to depression. The layoffs would send ripples through the county’s economy, especially its real estate market, he said.
Yarbrough said he understood the need for some level of reduction. He said he was disappointed, however, that UT System officials hadn’t also stated a plan to recoup some of the jobs in six months or a year.
Although UT System regents approved a plan to cut 3,800 full-time equivalent positions, state Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, said he hoped, after conversations with medical branch President David L. Callender, the real number might be less.
Officials may be able to eliminate unfilled positions and do other things to keep as many people employed as possible.
State Sen. Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, said he was very disappointed and a little shocked by the announcement.
He and Texas lawmakers would work during the next legislative session, which starts in January, to get as much money as possible to the medical branch, he said.
“We have a whole lot of work to do,” he said.
State Rep. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, said he thought the state had done well by UTMB employees.
“We can’t continue to pay people into the indefinite future,” he said.
Taylor said the medical branch should make restoring the Level 1 trauma center, the prison medical services and the medical school top priorities.
He said he also supports looking for alternatives to funding sources for the medical center, including the possibility of creating a county hospital district.
“We obviously can’t have a hospital district by tomorrow, and it’s not fair to say that’s what has to be done,” he said.
“We do need to be looking at alternative ways to fund (UTMB).”
Taylor, a member of the select committee on the state’s storm recovery efforts, said the Legislature would have UTMB near the top of its priority list when the next session begins.
That committee is slated to have its next meeting in League City next month, Taylor said.
While state legislators grapple with funding for the medical branch, one Texas congressman with a lot of pull in Washington, D.C., promised to help both the island and its medical school recover.
U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, who visited Galveston on Wednesday, said he would work with Eiland to push through federal funding to repair storm damage.
Edwards is on both the House Budget and Appropriations committees, putting him in a good position to fight for Galveston, Eiland said.
Funding a flood-control system around the medical branch campus and moving essential hospital services off the ground floor would be top priorities, Edwards said.
Mainland Editor T.J. Aulds contributed to this report.
