That sales tax

EDITORIAL

Where are we on the lingering matter of how to fund the new CHI S t. Joseph’s/ HealthPoint Clinic which has now been open for almost three months?

The answer is: About where we’ve been for pretty close to 10 months now.

W hich means Rockdale taxpayers, and Rock-dale Hospital District (RHD) reserve funds, are footing our community’s share of the bill until something else happens.

I f something else doesn’t happen, that 6.5-cent property tax being paid by Rockdale residents this year will likely be around next year, then go up by 10 cents in subseq uent years as the RHD exhausts its reserves.

RHD directors knew going into the new clinic era they would have to find an outside revenue stream of about $200,000 a year, or raise property taxes on residents of the hospital district, essentially Rockdale city residents. (Cost is actually $4 00,000 a year but S t. Joseph’s is picking half that tab).

The district used to collect a half cent sales tax to support the now-closed Richards Memorial Hospital. That tax was transferred to the new Municipal Development District (MDD) in a series of public votes in 2009.

RHD’s first efforts were to ask the City of Rockdale to share its own half-cent sales tax for the clinic and to ask the MDD the same thing.

Neither one of those req uests, predictably, met with anything approaching a favorable response.

Next, the district held a public town forum hoping, no doubt, to encourage public support to reclaim the sales tax from the MDD.

W hat it got were comments from the public essentially saying the community would have preferred an emergency room to a clinic. The RHD responded that it would like an ER too but that would cost much more than a clinic and that the best chance to return emergency health care to Rockdale would be in connection with a clinic.

Expanding the hospital district’s boundary to the school district, or even a S outh Milam or countywide approach have been discussed. Both those would, of course, need the votes of persons outside Rockdale to share the tax burden.

The q uestion of an election for Rockdale residents to vote on transferring the MDD sales tax back to the RHD has been discussed at several city council meetings. I f approved, that would enable the RHD to do away with, or dramatically lower, its property tax.

I t has been pointed out, q uite correctly, by some on the council that there does not appear to be any noticeable groundswell of support from the public before the council unless you count the 206 signatures on a petition presented to the city last Monday, and formally noted at that evening’s council meeting. (Organizers said only three people turned them down and they could have collected many more).

There has been support voiced by those in attendance at previous council meetings for leaving the sales tax with the MDD.

But the item has not been placed on a council agenda by anyone on the council. I t won’t be acted upon unless that happens.

According to the Texas Comptroller, the MDD received just over $399,000 from the sales tax last year.

The bottom line. Nothing has really changed in the past 10 months except Rockdale taxpayers are paying more than they used to.—M .B .