Prescription for a showdown?
Published Sunday, March 2, 2008
Adams County Supervisors face a tough task ahead as the county-owned Natchez Regional Medical Center seeks tax support to help it keep afloat.
Hospital board members are expected to ask the county to add millage later this year as the county prepares its new budget for fiscal year 2009.
With fresh faces on the board of supervisors, many of who ran on the premise of reducing taxes, the idea of adding a new tax won't be an easy pill to swallow.
The interesting thing is that if the supervisors say "no" to the tax request, the tax could be forced. The hospital's largest amount of debt, approximately $18 million in bonds, was refinanced a couple of years ago with a 5-mil option or guarantee signed off by the then county board.
So, let's assume the supervisors say "no" to the tax request. They're still on the hook for up to 5 mils if the hospital board simply quit paying the bond payments and said, "we don't have the money."
At that point, the supervisors' hands would be tied and they'd have to accept the tax.
The question is will they delay the inevitable this week even if doing so puts the hospital deeper in debt?
Only time will tell if the supervisors truly will cut off their nose to spite their face.
Comments
Interesting question.
Hmm!
Is it Check or Check Mate?
If you keep advocating all these tax increases Kevin in time people won't be able to afford the Democrat, unless you and Walter Brown can get a tax passed to supply the paper to the citizenry.
Reward failure with more funds? Why not sue Quorum. They must have some kind of fault here. They were paid to manage the hospital, not drive it into debt.
Atty. Richard Kilbourne of Clinton, La. wrote a book called 'Debt, Investments, Slaves' about how the antebellum economy was being financed through mortgages on slaves. How are all these bonds and guarantees different from that practice?
I like the idea of suing Quorum. Was the hospital doing well before they took over? I'm sorry, I just starting keeping up with all this.
I was born in Natchez! My family has paid taxes for many years! Kevin, you can not reward poor management by Quorum and the Hospital Board with more Tax Money!
Now that is a thought Enkikur--
Hold Quorum liable for it's poor performance
One thing I don't understand is how the doctors can make so much money - million dollar homes-- but the hospitals go broke??? Why don't the doctors all buy a piece of the hospital and run it as a private institution??? I bet it makes money then!!!
And that does bring a relevant question-- when did it become government's obligation to run hospitals? In this case county government owns the facility. If health care keeps going progressively socialized with free universal healthcare mandated by federal government then wouldn't the federal government then be practically forced to buy all the hospitals and have total control of the care any patient recieved?? You might be a guinea pig for experimental treatment and never know it -- that is scary!!
Such as in China - if you have more children than the government allows, I think it is one child per family, you are castrated and imprisoned!!
I realize that is somewhat eccentric thinking, but on the other hand,it has been documented and reported that the federal government has already tested biological warfare methods on certain populations without public notice. I think we should attempt to keep government out of health care and maintain our personal freedoms as much as possible, truly our health and safety is at risk!!
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