Medical & Science:
Harris County voted in 1965 to approve creation a hospital district.
On Sunday Jan. 17, 1965, the Chronicle’s opinion pages included a Q&A intended to give readers “what you need to know” and show “why the district must have your ‘yes’ vote January 23.” Excerpts follow.
Q. What are we voting on Jan. 23?
A. Whether or not to create a hospital district for Harris County, which will have the power to levy taxes to finance Ben Taub General Hospital, Jefferson Davis Hospital and any other institution that may come under the control of the district.
Q. What will be on the ballot?
A. This: “FOR (or AGAINST) the creation of a Hospital District; providing for the levy of a tax not to exceed Seventy-five Cents (75c) on the One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) valuation; and providing for the assumption by such District of all outstanding bonds heretofore issued by Harris County, and by any city in said county for hospital purposes.”
Q. What is a hospital district anyway?
A. It is a public agency, responsible to the people, but apart from the city or county governments. It is able to act independently to finance, administer, control and operate the hospital system.
Q. Does anybody else in Texas have a hospital districts?
A. Dallas County, Bexar County (San Antonio), Tarrant County (Fort Worth), El Paso County. Eight other less populated counties have joined to create hospital districts.
Q. If I vote for a district how much can it tax me if it passes?
A. The maximum set by law is 75 cents per $100 valuation. But is expected that, as in other districts, the tax will be about 50 cents — far below the maximum.
Q. Who runs this district?
A. A board of from five to seven persons appointed by the county commissioners, for staggered terms. They get no pay.
Q. Well, suppose this board wanted to raise the tax from 50 cents up to the maximum, or beyond?
A. The board does not set the tax rate; the county commissioners – who are directly answerable to the voters – must do that. No one can raise the rate above the maximum, because it’s against the law. Incidentally, after ten years of operating a district, Dallas’ tax is still 45 cents. Experts here figure the tax will be the same when the district gets ahead in a couple of years, and has paid off outstanding debts on bonds.
Q. Well, what’s all this going to cost me?
A. The county says it’s going to lower the tax rate by about five cents (per $100 valuation) the first year of a district, and perhaps more later. The city hasn’t given an exact figure, but has pledged to lower the rate by a “substantial” amount.
You have to figure, too, that the county levies taxes on 20 percent of the actual valuation (on $3000 of a $15,000 home for example), while the city taxes on 40 percent.
Q. Yes, but what’s it going to cost me?
A. Even if the city and county did not reduce taxes, if you are buying, or own a $15,000 house the hospital district will cost you about $15 more a year – about one dollar a month. It’s a good bet the city and county will both reduce taxes by at least five cents each. In that case the district will cost you $10.50 a year more.
Q. How do you figure?
A. The county will do the taxing, and it taxes on 20 percent of the valuation. On a $15,000 house, the county levies taxes on $3000. If the hospital district tax is 50 cents, that’s $15 a year. Now, if the county reduces taxes by a nickel, that’s $1.50 off your taxes. If the city goes down a nickel, since it taxes at 40 percent ($6000), that’s another $3 off your taxes. Subtract that from $15 and it leaves $10.50.
Q. Why can’t the city handle the hospital? After all it’s in the city.
A. It is also available to every citizen in the county who lives outside the city, and many, any county residents use it, whether they live in Baytown, Houston, Pasadena, Humble, or anywhere in the county. Under the law it belongs to the people of the county (which includes the people of Houston) and that would remain so if a district is created.
Q. Then why can’t the county handle it? After all, everybody in the city of Houston is also a county resident.
A. The county already has a rough time finding the money to pay for the many services it must render: The courts, the sheriff ’s department, the district attorney’s office, the county jail and prison farm, the county libraries, the maintenance of roads and bridges and tunnels, the agricultural agent’s office, the health department, the medical examiner’s office, the justices of peace, the county clerk’s office, the probate court, the tax assessor-collector’s office, and many more.
Most of these services are paid for out if the general fund, and if you look at the figures there simply is not enough money to operate a hospital.
Q. Why can’t the city and county operate the hospital in cooperation?
A. They’ve been trying to do it since 1923 and it hasn’t worked yet, because there is no law to require each governmental body to pay a specific percentage of the hospital’s needs. Virtually every year the city and county have fought over who will pay what, and the people get caught in the crossfire.
Q. How will the district change this situation?
A. The board of the district will have authority to set its own budget according to the amount or revenue expected from taxes. No more will the city or county delay the purchase of needed equipment. The administrator of the hospital will be responsible to the board. The board meetings must be open to the public.
Q. Why should all this come up now?
A. The hospital’s budget has grown from $2 million in 1950 to $7.5 million last year, and the board has requested a cut-down-to-the-bone budget of $8.9 million for this year. In spite of rising costs and increased budgets, the hospital system has been falling steadily behind the needs of a county that has grown spectacularly.
Cities like Dallas and Atlanta have more hospital beds, and spend more money on their public hospitals than Houston and Harris County do, although they have less population.
The maternity section of the city-county hospital system was designed to handle less than 400 births a month. About 650 babies are now being born each month in the hospital. This means that mothers are denied beds until just before the baby is born, that there is not enough pre-natal care to prevent disease, that mothers must leave the hospital the day after giving birth, and that constant epidemics in the crowded nurseries have killed nearly 30 babies.
The nursing shortage at the city-county hospital here has become alarming; sometimes only one registered nurse is on duty in the entire Ben Taub Hospital. Housekeepers cannot be paid more than $130 a month. The hospital is in danger of becoming old and filthy long before its time.
The district is an attempt to solve the problems of growth one and for all.
Q. Isn’t it fact that most if those who go to the hospital are not property owners and don’t pay property taxes? Why should I vote to help them?
A. First, because the hospital is available to everyone. And many who don’t use it right now, may at any time. The emergency room treats accident and sudden illness victims from all economic brackets and illness and accidents happen to the propertied as well as those who have none.
Second, because the hospital helps a man or women get well enough again to go back to work and contribute to the community. Otherwise they would be continuous burden on the community and the taxpayer. It should not be forgotten the renter helps the landlord pay property taxes.
Third, because the citycounty hospital system is the research and teaching center for Baylor University College of Medicine. Through the work done with patients and Ben Taub and Jefferson Davis Hospitals, the health of the county has been more secure, epidemics have been curtailed and prevented and medical advances that have attracted worldwide attention have been made. Countless lives have thus been saved in private hospitals throughout Houston and the nation.
Fourth, because Houston has gained a reputation for its Texas Medical Center, and for its health facilities. An integral part of this is the city-county hospital system.
Fifth, because Harris County’s uncaring attitude toward the hospital until now has gotten nationwide attention and has challenged the conscience of the citizenry.