The Rockdale Hospital District is investigating the particulars involved in getting voter approval to transfer sales taxes which have been collected by the Rockdale Municipal Development District (MDD) for the last 10 years to a new clinic.
That would require voter approval in several elections, to expand the hospital district from its current boundaries to those of the MDD and to allow any sales tax transfer between the entities.
But there’s one huge step which has to take place first. The MDD board first has to pass a resolution or ordinance to reduce the sales tax it is currently collecting. That has not happened.
TAXES—The hospital district appears to have reached an agreement with CHI-St. Joseph’s, through HealthPoint, to open a clinic on the campus of the former Little River-Rockdale Hospital.
There’s even a billboard on US 79 near Calhoun Drive proclaiming the new facility is coming to Rockdale.
About $400,000 annually will be required for that to happen, with that amount to be split equally between St. Joseph’s and the Rockdale Hospital District.
That leaves the hospital district needing to come up with $200,000 per year. The district has ad valorem taxing authority, but has kept that tax rate at zero since 2007.
Rockdale Hospital District used to collect a half-cent sales tax. As a result of a 2010 election, that tax was transferred to the then-new MDD.
Now the hospital district is faced with again collecting some kind of tax to maintain the clinic, which is targeted to open as soon as September.
“If the district just had its sales tax back, everything would be a home run,” Board President Dick Burns said.
COMPLEX—Burns appeared before the MDD board in May to seek assistance with the funding. No action has been taken by the development district since that appearance.
(Burns also appeared before the Rockdale City Council asking for identical assistance. Again, no action has been taken.)
If the MDD board does not vote to surrender all or part of the sales tax, end of the story.
“It (the mechanism to transfer the sales tax) would start if the MDD is approached by the citizens and agrees to give up the tax,” Burns said.
Should that happen, things get complex.
The hospital district board would have to pass an ordinance to enact a sales tax.
Voters would then have to approve both reducing the sales tax for the MDD and enacting it for the hospital district.
There would also have to be elections to expand the hospital from its current boundaries to the boundaries of the MDD.
Why does the hospital district need to be expanded? It currently does not include Walmart.
It appears the election to expand the hospital district will need to be started by a petition bearing the signatures of 50 persons residing in the area to be annexed presented to the hospital district board.
Hospital district directors point out if the above scenarios occur, they will not represent any new taxes. The half-cent sales tax is currently being collected by the MDD and such a vote would not change the tax, only where it goes.
CHOICE—There is a scenario, though, which would represent new taxation.
Hospital district directors could reinstate the ad valorem tax that’s currently at zero. The district once levied an ad valorem tax as high as 47 cents.
“It’s a choice for the people,” Burns said. “The MDD was a reaction to Alcoa closing operations and people wanting new industry.”
“Has it (MDD) been a good use of the funds?” he continued. “People have got to answer for themselves. That is where we are today. But people have to make the decision on where we go from there.”
Hospital district directors believe a petition of 50 or so signatures could be presented to the MDD asking its board to return the sales tax. Such petitioners would need to get on the MDD’s meeting agenda to do that.
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