In reading the local papers regarding the County Commission's new "golden goose", I have a question to pose to the County Commission and the citizens of Marengo County.
The projected revenue from the one cent sales tax the CC's have imposed upon us is roughly $1.5 million, give or take a couple of hundred thousand dollars. With uncompensated "indigent care" at the Bryan Whitfield Hospital quoted to be $1.2 million / year for Marengo County's share, just how in the world does the County Commission expect to renovate the courthouse, pave every dirt road in the county, and do all the other projects they say they want to do on $250,000 a year, which is all you will have left after you pay the Whit this indigent care each year? How does the county expect to pay back a $20 million bond issue on $250,000/year? Heck, you can't even run the county on what you've got budgeted now! This I gotta know!
Comments welcome, especially from our glorious County Commissioners!
$20,000,000 bond would cost about $500,000 a year. They haven't figured out how much the courthouse is going to cost yet. Indigent care as Nabors had it(without the unpaid debt being added) would be about $500,000 a year. It just so happens that Demopolis figures to generate about $500,000 in tax revenue it and when it goes through. It's "possible" this is on or about what was promised to the Hospital. Armstead believes the tax will generate only about $500,000 a year, but he could have been subtracting whatever they had promised the Hospital prior to voting the resolution in. What is obvioius, is they had this cooking ever sense they came to whatever resolution they came to with Marshall and THA.
If they are going to make this thing happen regardless of what the public thinks, they AT LEAST owe us the courtesy of telling us where the money is going.
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Can someone answer this question? "The Whitt" is operated by the Tombigbee HealthCare Authority. All "HealthCare Authorities" have to have a governing body over them that appoints the majority of their board (formerly called the hospital board of directors). Every HealthCare Authority in the state of Alabama has the county commission as that governing body except BWWMH! Why? When the BWWMH incorperated to become a HealthCare Authority why did they (the board of directors at that time) choose the city council as their governing body and not the county commission as everyone in the state did.
Seems strange that you have a hospital representing and serving the ENTIRE COUNTY but you choose one of the city councils within that county to be your governing body, then you go to the county commision for help with indigent care. Why not go to the governing body (you chose) the city council for help? Seems very fishy to me.
By the way it is allowable to go back and change who the governing body over a HealthCare Authority is. Looks to me as though it should be the county commission since you serve the entire county and you expect the county commission to pay for your indigent care. What do you think?
You have a very interesting question Richard. Before THA came into existence, the Authority was known as "The Healthcare Authority of the City of Demopolis". Demopolis City Council appoints five board members, the hospital board appoints the other four. The Whit has looked out for no one else but the City of Demopolis. Although we have two ambulance bases in the county, look which one gets pulled out of service to go on out of town transfers or is called to Demopolis to "cover Demopolis" while they are gone out of town. THA / BWWMH tried to make it in Uniontown, but gave up after about two to three years and pulled all it's resources from Perry County. THA has been approached several times by the people of Sweet Water to put an ambulance and possibly a clinic in Sweet Water, but have been unsuccessful in getting it. Yet look who is suffering. The hospital always has been and always will be more concerned with what is good for Demopolis over the good of the entire county regardless of who's running the show. I find it interesting that they approach the County Commissioners for the indigent care and have not asked the Demopolis City Council for a dime. Would or should the City of Demopolis be required to pay for indigent care since it is the governing body? If not all, maybe the city's portion?
My next question is:
Are the other counties paying their fare share of indigent care? Last time I inquired, not a single other county was paying THA / BWWMH one penny for indigent care and nothing has been mentioned about whether THA is trying or is collecting anything from them. Why should Marengo County have to foot the bill for the patients outside its borders?
The Hospital has always acted as a private company. It's not a "county hospital" per say, but falls under that category by default since it's the only hospital in the county. I really don't know why they chose the city council in Demopolis over the county commission--perhaps at the time, since they weren't recieving any funding from the county, the local council made more sense to them.
By law, it's the county's responsibility to pay for it's indigent residents care, not the city's. They could ask the Demopolis council for help, but all they would have to say is no. It was mentioned before, I can't remember by who, that it would be ok for the county commission to elect a percentage of the board members as well. Personally, I don't see what kind of agenda the Demopolis City Council would have that the members they select for the board wouldn't serve in the best interest of the County.
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Stated per Mayor Pat Vice
This is taxation without representation.
Where have I read that?? Oh yeah, here
Linden Council is concerned that the money generated by the tax would all go to Demopolis. They didn't say if the courhouse is remodeled, would that count as money spent in Linden.
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Originally posted by stickman This is TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION! I think a "tea party" may be in order here! Anybody out there interested in hosting one for our County Commissioners?
Quote from Stickman's post in Local News Forum in Dave's thread "Commission Passes One Cent Sales Tax".
You all correct my thinking on this if you want but here are my thoughts and questions: Why can't at least the current president of the Marengo County Commission be on the board of Whit/THA if the county is required to pay out funds for care? That person could then keep the full commission briefed. If other counties are required to pay for care at Whit/THA, shouldn't they be represented on the board? Doesn't this fall under "taxation without representation"? Should the Whit be designated as a "regional" hospital since it serves Marengo, Sumter, Greene, Hale and some or parts of other counties?
I see, from the posts here and comments from other people, that a lot of people DON'T want to be taken to BWWMH if they become sick or injured. They would rather be taken to Riley in Meridian or DCH in Tuscaloosa. Most state the service and doctors at BWWMH as the reasons. In my case I had no choice but BWWMH. I would not have made it to Meridian or Tuscaloosa the two times I was admitted thru the emergency room at the Whit. I would have checked out at about the Warrior or Tombigbee river bridges. Is the stated service bad because the staff and doctors give poor service or the administration don't support these people and patients? I don't have the answer.
I have a question - I know with the new HIPPA law things aren't as open as they once were. Now I don't want to know names or anything like that. I want to know numbers. If we are going to have to pay for indigent care, shouldn't we be allowed to know how much is truly indigent? I want to know how much of this is copays that the hospital hasn't tried to collect. I want to know how much of this is Medicare.
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