trauma care referendum result from St. Lucie Supervisor of Election:

voted NO: 16030 votes (73.71%)
voted YES: 5717 votes (26.29%)

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/conte...0621letterfile.html

Reasons abound to vote no on St. Lucie 'trauma tax'

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Reasons abound to vote no on St. Lucie 'trauma tax' Here are reasons to vote no on the trauma tax referendum and tens of millions of dollars that Lawnwood Hospital is seeking from county taxpayers ("Trauma tax sought for Lawnwood team," Sunday).

Lawnwood is owned by Hospital Corporation of America, the world's largest for-profit health-care provider, with 280 hospitals and/or surgery centers and 134,000 employees. Revenues are $25 billion annually, and profit is $1 billion-plus. It has been fined $1.7 billion for Medicare and Medicaid fraud and paid its top five executives more than $29 million cash and stock in a single year.
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Lawnwood and St. Lucie Medical Center, HCA-owned, had profits of $28 million in 2006. Why should St. Lucie County taxpayers subsidize, to the tune of $7.2 million, a hospital and company capable of such numbers? Only St. Lucie County residents will pay this tax, although the center would serve Martin and Okeechobee counties also. The doctors will have private practices and work in emergency rooms, generating additional millions of dollars for themselves and Lawnwood.

There is a correlation between patient volume, more than 650 per year, with lowered mortality and length of stay. In 2006, St. Lucie County, Martin and Okeechobee counties sent far fewer 82 trauma patients to Holmes Regional Treatment Center in Melbourne and St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, 17 minutes away by helicopter. This raises the question about timeliness of need.

Lawnwood is negotiating with the doctors, yet the hospital wants the St. Lucie County Fire Board to be the contracting agency. This responsibility and liability should not be transferred to the county. Two of five county commissioners voted against holding this referendum, as many questions remain unanswered about integrity of the process and the question remains: Has this been properly scrutinized?

Lawnwood could have asked for this election in November, instead choosing to pay for a special election in the middle of summer and with less than 60 days for the electorate to be educated on all sides of the issue. More time is needed to put all of this in perspective and Lawnwood can reapply.

CRAIG MUNDT

Fort Pierce

Editor's note: The referendum is Tuesday; early voting began June 11 and continues through Saturday.

Profit surges at hospital seeking trauma subsidy

By PHIL GALEWITZ

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

FORT PIERCE — Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute's profit leaped 73 percent last year, raising questions anew about why the hospital needs an annual $7 million stipend from St. Lucie County taxpayers to build a trauma facility.

But Lawnwood Regional officials say they've already invested the hospital's $14.4 million profit in renovating and expanding its emergency department and upgrading other areas of the hospital.
Chart:Hospital earnings

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They say the $7 million that the hospital seeks from county taxpayers will pay for specialists to staff the trauma facility.

The nearest trauma centers are now in West Palm Beach and Melbourne, and hospital officials say reducing delays in care will save lives.

Early voting started Monday in a St. Lucie County referendum on taxing the average homeowner about $57 a year.

The official voting day is June 26.

While opponents of the new tax say they wouldn't mind having a trauma center in the county, they think Lawnwood Regional and its parent company, HCA Inc., should be able to afford it without a public subsidy.

"I think a $14 million profit shows they could do this on their own without dipping into the pockets of county taxpayers," said Craig Mundt, a vocal opponent of the tax and member of the St. Lucie County Planning and Zoning Commission.

Nashville-based HCA, which owns 173 hospitals in the United States and Europe, had $25 billion in revenue last year when it was bought by a private equity firm.

Lawnwood Regional's 2006 profit was the highest of any of the 10 HCA or Tenet Healthcare Corp. hospitals in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast, according to audited financial statements from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration.

HCA's 194-bed St. Lucie Medical Center in Port St. Lucie made a $14 million profit last year, down from $14.5 million in the prior year, AHCA records showed.

Most Palm Beach County hospitals saw profits drop last year, largely as a result of a drop in admissions caused by fewer visitors and snowbirds coming to the region.

Unlike Palm Beach County hospitals, St. Lucie County hospitals were little affected by Hurricane Wilma in October 2005.

That storm led to a downturn in tourism and visitors in Palm Beach County in 2006.

Both Lawnwood Regional and St. Lucie Medical saw admissions rise modestly last year, bucking the regional downturn, according to data from the Treasure Coast Health Council.

Lawnwood Regional spokeswoman Beth Williams said the hospital still needs community funds for the trauma center to be able to afford to pay doctors to be on call in the trauma center.

"There's no matching revenue source for that," Williams said.

The tax would be no more than 25 cents per $1,000 of taxable property value and could be less, depending on contracts signed with trauma surgeons.

The owner of a $250,000 house with the homestead exemption would pay a maximum tax of $56.25 a year.

Williams said the 341-bed Lawnwood Regional reinvests all of its profit into the facility by paying for new technology and making renovations.

She said in recent years the hospital has spent $12 million to triple the size of its emergency room, $4 million for a medical office building, $1 million for a new heart catheterization laboratory and more than $1 million for a new robotic surgery device.

"Overall we saw an increase in volume, and we run an efficient hospital," Williams said.

Lawnwood Regional's revenue rose 15 percent to $226.5 million in 2006, while the hospital held its labor expenses to a 5 percent increase.

St. Lucie Medical's revenue rose 6.5 percent to $136.8 million, even as its labor costs rose nearly 8 percent.

Personnel costs are hospitals' single biggest expense.

Trauma forum in St. Lucie County will go ahead after all

By JAMES KIRLEY
jim.kirley@scripps.com
June 9, 2007

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Seizing a political opportunity, a group opposed to local taxpayers funding trauma care at a Fort Pierce hospital will host a public forum to replace a county meeting canceled earlier this week after pro-tax supporters refused to participate.

"The St. Lucie Association wishes to express its outrage at the circumstances that led to the decision to hold, and then cancel, Monday's forum on the so-called trauma tax," the political committee said in a statement released Friday. The association's meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Polish American Social Club in Port St. Lucie.

The county's forum was to be organized and broadcast by staff of SLCTV, the county's public access cable channel. The county pulled the plug Wednesday after Citizens for Trauma Care announced it would not participate.

"It was a matter of format," said Vernon Smith. He and fellow banking executive Hal Roberts co-chair the political committee that supports up to $7 million per year in taxes for Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute's trauma-care initiative.

Smith said he understood that people opposing the tax wanted to turn the county forum into a debate.

"There was no opportunity to say why a trauma center is needed," Smith said.

"I'm concerned about taxes," he added. "Government probably funds a hundred services. Where do you put enhanced medical care on that continuum?"

The most ill and critically injured patients in St. Lucie County are now flown to the nearest trauma center in either Palm Beach or Brevard counties. Backers of taxing 25 cents per $1,000 of property value say paying for specially trained doctors and technicians round-the-clock at Lawnwood would save lives by shaving precious minutes between injury and treatment.

Lawnwood and its sister hospital in Port St. Lucie are owned by HCA Inc.

Public funding of money-losing trauma medicine at corporate-owned hospitals is done elsewhere — most notably St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, where many of St. Lucie County's cases are now flown. But the idea is not popular among opponents of the June 26 referendum.

"We aren't against trauma care," said Richard Wilson, chairman of the St. Lucie Association. "If HCA wants to have a trauma center, I think it's wonderful. But we're totally against the taxpayers subsidizing them." The group invited Lawnwood to participate in Thursday's meeting.

Beth Williams, Lawnwood's director of marketing and public relations, has spoken to dozens of community groups to promote the tax.

"What happens if the referendum fails? We don't have a trauma center, plain and simple," she told such an audience Thursday night at the Lincoln Park Community Center.

"If it does pass, we will have trauma care in this community by Oct. 1," Williams said.

MONEY FOR VOTE

Two political committees are active in the June 26 referendum. The latest campaign finance reports were due Friday. They show the

political committee formed to support the tax far outspending the group opposing it.

CITIZENS FOR TRAUMA CARE

Total contributions: $33,165

Total expenses: $32,228

ST. LUCIE ASSOCIATION

Total contributions: $120

Total expenses: $0

Contributors:

St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections. Full finance reports for both groups can be viewed at www.slcelections.com.

MEETING THURSDAY

The St. Lucie Association has announced it will host a public forum 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Polish American Social Club, 343 N.W. Prima Vista Blvd., Port St. Lucie. People for and against a proposed property tax to fund trauma care are being invited to participate.

St. Lucie Association

URL: http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/local_news/artic...736_5573405,00.html
Trauma center meeting canceled after pullout in St. Lucie County

By REBECCA PANOFF
rebecca.panoff@scripps.com
June 7, 2007

FORT PIERCE — A public meeting to discuss a tax to fund a trauma center at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute was canceled after a group for the tax pulled out of the meeting Wednesday.

Citizens for Trauma Care, a political action committee formed to promote a new tax to help pay for a trauma center at the hospital, was supposed to participate in the public meeting scheduled for Monday but decided not to after other groups also were given time to present views during the meeting.

The meeting was a result of county commissioners asking county staff to run information on the county television station, SLCTV, about the trauma center referendum. Staff members in the county's media relations department didn't want to run a video given to them by the hospital because they thought it would look like the county was biased, so a public meeting was scheduled.

The debate about who would be present at Monday's meeting came after Commissioner Charles Grande asked county staff whether citizen groups could have equal time to present their views during the meeting.

Beth Williams, Lawnwood's director of marketing and public relations and a member of Citizens for Trauma Care, said the group's decision to pull out of the meeting came after the change in format.

"What we agreed to do was a presentation on the facts and do public questioning and answering. Then it changed," she said.

Williams said she thinks other groups in the community are spreading "misinformation" about things like how many residents are treated for trauma and whether there is a need for the facility in the community.

Williams said instead of attending the meeting and disputing the "misinformation," the group opted to pull out.

"We can do that, we just chose not to do that. We chose not to participate in a public forum like that, an organized presentation of misrepresentation. We just don't believe that that's a benefit to the community," Williams said.

PGA Village resident Pam Hammer, who said she and others formed on Monday their own political action committee called No Trauma Tax, wondered Wednesday why Citizens for Trauma Care had pulled out. Hammer had planned to speak at Monday's meeting.

"What are they afraid of? They have been traveling around this community presenting their position to homeowner associations and groups without anyone to present the other side," she said. "This (meeting) is a wonderful opportunity for those who are interested to hear both sides, ask questions and make a well-informed voting decision."

REFERENDUM AT A GLANCE

St. Lucie County residents will go to the polls June 26 for

a special referendum to create a new tax to help fund a trauma center at the Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute:

• The tax would be up to a quarter-mill property tax — or 25 cents on each $1,000 of taxable property value — to raise up to $7 million annually to pay for the trauma center.

• The countywide special referendum will be paid for by Lawnwood at a cost of $150,000.

• The owner of a home in St. Lucie County with an assessed value of $250,000 and a standard $25,000 homestead exemption would pay $56.25 annually if taxed that one-quarter mill.

• The St. Lucie Fire District, acting as the Trauma Board, would be in charge of the trauma center funds. The Fire District board is made up of two Fort Pierce city commissioners, two St. Lucie County commissioners, two Port St. Lucie City Council members and one governor appointee.

• There will be a 10-year sunset or expiration on the tax, but Lawnwood could ask for an extension.

http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/local_news/artic...736_5568181,00.html

Trauma video sparks debate in St. Lucie

By JAMES KIRLEY
jim.kirley@scripps.com
June 3, 2007

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Anyone doubting there is disagreement over whether county landowners should tax themselves to staff a trauma center at a corporate-owned local hospital might want to turn on the television.

By tuning into the City of Fort Pierce's public access cable channel 27, you can watch a video produced by the American Trauma Society that promotes hospital trauma centers as lifesavers.

But if you tune into St. Lucie County's public cable access channel 21, you won't see the same video — despite the fact that the same people operate both channels.

It's no accident the video, delivered to the station by supporters of Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute's proposed trauma center, got play on one channel and not the other: Station Technical Operations Manager Shane DeWitt said that County Administrator Doug Anderson told him to view the video and report whether it took sides.

DeWitt said he felt it did and Anderson told him not to air the video.

"In my opinion, what we're trying to do is not give the impression that we're pushing (the tax) either way," DeWitt said.

But Fort Pierce Mayor Bob Benton, a longtime supporter of local trauma medical services, told station management to run the video on the city's channel.

"I don't think it is biased," Benton said. "It shows what a trauma center does. If there is another side out there, if that other side comes to me with something, we would show it.

"I'm not going to tell anybody how to vote," he said. "Yes, Bob Benton is going to vote for it."

Billboard and yard signs have gone up across the county promoting a "yes" vote on a June 26 referendum. It would tax up to 25 cents per $1,000 property value, raising up to $7 million a year countywide for salaries for the doctors who will staff the trauma center.

The outdoor ads are being funded by the Citizens for Trauma Care, said Beth Williams, the political committee's treasurer who also is Lawnwood's director of marketing and public relations.

To date, the only organized opposition to the referendum has been from the St. Lucie Association.

"We're making phone calls," said Richard Wilson of Fort Pierce, chairman of the political committee. "We're going to have a membership drive.

"Yes, we know we are running on a tight schedule," he said, noting the vote is less than four weeks away.

The referendum was approved by a 3-2 vote of the County Commission. One of those voting against it was County Commissioner Doug Coward, who said a single-issue special election was not the proper way to poll voters.

Williams said Lawnwood first mentioned the possibility of public funding for its trauma center in spring 2006, at the county's annual strategic planning meeting.

"Then we started talking individually to community leaders," she said. "As we got into the summer (of 2006), people who are community leaders and whose opinions we respect told us that the November (2006) ballot was going to be contentious."

Williams said Lawnwood had wanted to get the referendum on the ballot by March, before winter season ended.

"Time got away from us," she said.

Lawnwood now needs to open its trauma center before Oct. 1, when time will run out on a Florida Department of Health application.

Williams has been busy making presentations promoting Lawnwood's efforts to homeowners associations, service clubs, churches and on radio shows.

A big audience is expected 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Lincoln Park Recreation Center. The St. Lucie County Ministerial Alliance, Fort Pierce Main Street and local chapters of several fraternities and sororities have organized the event.

The Rev. Robert Coleman, pastor of Goodwill Presbyterian Church in Fort Pierce, said he personally supports a tax for trauma care. He noted that trauma centers save lives, but also that they are not money-makers for hospitals.

"It's a run-in-the-red situation and somebody's got to pick up the tab," said Coleman, who got involved in the issue as vice president of Mustard Seed Ministries.

"Where is the money going to come from?" he added. "That's the million-dollar question. You've got some folks out there already struggling."

PUBLIC FORUM ON TRAUMA TAX

A town hall meeting will take place 6-7:30 p.m. June 11 in St. Lucie County Commission chambers, where the public will be invited to speak its piece on using a new property tax to fund trauma care at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute in Fort Pierce. The new tax will be placed before county voters in a June 26 referendum. The voting is both requested and funded by Lawnwood.

The event will be broadcast live on St. Lucie County TV (Comcast channel 21) and WPSL 1590 AM radio.

It will be rebroadcast on SLCTV at various times up until the June 26 referendum and WPSL will rebroadcast the forum 7 p.m. June 21.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/treasurecoast...1b_slfire_0517.html

Fire board afraid cities may opt out of trauma center
By Teresa Lane

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Thursday, May 17, 2007

PORT ST. LUCIE — Six weeks before voters will decide whether to pay higher taxes for a trauma care center, fire district officials said Wednesday that they're concerned they haven't seen a budget for the proposed center and aren't sure whether the cities of Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie could refuse to raise taxes if the measure passed countywide.

Members of the St. Lucie County Fire Board instructed board attorney Ken Crooks to investigate the cities' ability to opt out of the tax after board member and Port St. Lucie Vice Mayor Jack Kelly said he would vote to do just that if the referendum passed countywide but was defeated in Port St. Lucie precincts.

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Board member Doug Coward, a member of the St. Lucie County Commission that voted narrowly to proceed with a June 26 trauma referendum, said he is "greatly concerned" about the possibility and wants an immediate report.

"If the voters countywide approve it, I thought the cities were bound to impose it," said Coward, one of two commissioners who voted against the summer referendum. "This issue needs to be resolved immediately."

Interim Fire Chief Ron Parrish and fire board Chairman Eddie Becht said they met May 7 with Thomas Pentz, chief executive officer of the Fort Pierce hospital that wants to operate the trauma center, and were told they'd have a proposed budget by late last week.

The figures still have not arrived, and several board members said they have many questions about how the emergency center at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center and Heart Institute would operate. The fire board has been asked to serve as the trauma care board to oversee the center and negotiate contracts with doctors and nurses.

Although board member Rufus Alexander, a Fort Pierce city commissioner, said he would vote to impose the added trauma tax - up to 25 cents per $1,000 of taxable value - in Fort Pierce if voters countywide authorized it, Becht said he's not sure how he would vote if the measure passed countywide but failed at Fort Pierce precincts.

Commissioners face a July'1 deadline to create a special taxing unit if they are to collect taxes on the 2008 bills. Seriously injured patients now go to trauma centers at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach or Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne.

http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/local_news/artic...736_5501937,00.html

it's up to St. Lucie County voters whether Lawnwood gets trauma center

By REBECCA PANOFF
rebecca.panoff@scripps.com
April 25, 2007

FORT PIERCE — If you're a member of a homeowners association or community group in St. Lucie County, expect a visit soon from a member of a political action committee touting the need for a trauma center at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute.

After a 3-2 vote Tuesday, county commissioners agreed to a June 26 referendum asking voters to create a new tax to help fund a trauma center at the hospital, members of Citizens for Trauma Care realized they have their work cut out for them.

Their task is to convince a majority of St. Lucie County residents why they should help pay for trauma care to serve Treasure Coast residents at the for-profit hospital.

"I think that the main thing to do is go out and meet community groups and have a free discussion," said Riverside Bank president Vernon Smith, committee co-chairman. "Most people obviously want a trauma center, but people are concerned about the tax issue. We get taxed for a lot of things, the issue is what priority do you put on (health care,) how close to top of list is health care?"

Martin, St. Lucie and Okeechobee counties now transport their most seriously injured patients to St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, with a few in northern St. Lucie County being flown to Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, where Indian River County sends its trauma patients. Lawnwood's center would be closer, and the only one on the Treasure Coast.

The political action committee, which has received almost all its $6,158 funding so far from Lawnwood officials — including $5,000 from Lawnwood Chief Executive Officer Tom Pentz — will do a tour of the county visiting homeowners associations and resident groups to talk about the trauma center and referendum. Other members include former county commissioner Judy Culpepper, and National City Bank president Hal Roberts.

The tax, which would be up to a quarter-mill property tax — or 25 cents on each $1,000 of taxable property value — would fund up to $7 million a year for salaries for the doctors who will staff the trauma center. The owner of a home in St. Lucie County with an assessed value of $250,000 and a standard $25,000 homestead exemption would pay $56.25 annually for the trauma center. There also will be a 10-year sunset or expiration on the tax, but Lawnwood could ask for an extension.

If the referendum is approved, the hospital could accept its first trauma patient on Oct. 1, said Beth Williams, Lawnwood's director of marketing and public relations. If it's not approved, the trauma center won't happen, even though the hospital has hired a medical director and a trauma specialist for the program already, Williams said.

But with residents in the county and around the state worried about escalating taxes, the trauma center tax may be a hard sell.

Culpepper said she thinks residents who want the trauma center but feel overtaxed should tell commissioners what they want their money spent on.

"We all need to be down at those budget hearings in July," she said. "... it's time we went down there and said 'Look this is the way we want our money spent and we have passed this and what we want is for you to shave some other area (to reduce taxes)" she said.

Many residents attending Tuesday's commission meeting voiced concerns that the referendum is in June, not during a general election. Historically, special elections have very poor voter turnout.

"I want all of the people to vote, not 8 percent of the people," said PGA Village resident Pam Hammer. "If the majority of the people want to fund this, I don't have a problem with that because I'm all for the majority rule, but to have an election with 8 percent of the people voting is disingenuous to me."

IN OTHER ACTION

St. Lucie County Commissioners Tuesday morning:

• Approved a $9,418 swipe-card security system that will be installed at the county administration building. It will be installed on the doors of commission, administration and county attorney offices. The system was approved 4-1 with Commissioner Charles Grande dissenting.

• Approved advertising a request for proposals for surfing businesses to provide surfing lessons on county beaches.

• Approved applying for a federal grant of up to $500,000 to study the feasibility of the county attracting and supporting a commercial air service at its airport.

• Approved applying for a grant from the state Department of Transportation for $400,000 to help pay for a sidewalk along Angle Road.

• Approved applying for a grant from the Florida Communities Trust Florida Forever Program for $6.6 million to acquire environmentally sensitive land owned by Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute.

Lawnwood delays trauma center presentation to St. Lucie commission a week
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By REBECCA PANOFF
rebecca.panoff@scripps.com
Posted at 12:26 p.m.
March 27, 2007
FORT PIERCE – St. Lucie County residents will have to wait one more week to find out whether they will be voting for a new trauma care center at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute.

County commissioners were to decide Tuesday afternoon whether to allow a special election June 12 for a new property tax to raise $7 million a year for the Treasure Coast's first trauma center, but hospital officials asked to delay their presentation until the commission's 6 p.m. April 3 meeting.

As the City of Fort Pierce and PSL are not involved in this proposed Lawnwood Trauma Center. I did a follow up with 2 Commissioners from St. Lucie County. One did not respond, one finally sent a response:

"It will be up to the VOTERS of ST. LUCIE COUNTY and I intend to allow them to decide this issue for themselves.I shall accept and support the will of the people."

I sent this Commissioner a response:
"Fair enough.If you are really trying to be fair and wanting VOTERS of ST. LUCIE COUNTY to make decisions, you ought to include in the referendum the decision to buy Old Sam's club for Doug Anderson's club and the $8.8 million line of credit (basically a loan). Let them VOTE!

Ms. Spangler,
 
First, the decision to place this item on the tax bill will be decided to the voters on a June ballot from what I have been advised. Hopefully there will be information given to the public to make an informed decision. It will be the decision of the voters as to whether we pay for this or not.
 
The decision to put it on the ballot for the voters to decide, will be that of the St. Lucie County Commissioners. There will be an upcoming meeting where they will make that decision.
 
If you have an alternative plan to the millage increase, I believe you should be sharing that with the county to give them the opportunity to discuss this in the near future when they make the decision to place this on the ballot.
 
Sincerely,
Patricia Christensen
 
Mayor
 
City of Port St. Lucie
121 SW Port St. Lucie Blvd.
Port St. Lucie, FL 34984
772.871.5159

I sent emails to Port St. Lucie Officials today and here's the response:

Hi Nelly,
 
This will go before the public for them (you) to vote on sometime in the summer. The city is not involved in any way. It will be up to the taxpayers if they want an additional tax burden placed upon them.
 
Many thanks,
 
Michelle
 
 
Councilwoman Berger
 
>>> "nelly" 3/17 11:32 am >>>
Dear City Officials,
 
I wonder if you heard about the intent to construct Lawnwood Trauma Center -whose administration is asking the county for tax money and a referendum..
 
I also wonder if you will support this project by adding another tax item into the property tax thereby increasing the tax people are paying. If you are in support of this project, will you be willing to donate some of your personal money for the cause of saving lives.
 
Please keep in mind that HCA, Inc. -the parent company/owner of Lawnwood Medical Center is publicly traded in NYSE, and four of their executive officers are receiving millions in compensation ranging from $12 million to $3 million with salaries/year of in millions. How many of the residents in St. Lucie are even receiving $500,000 a year on salary?
 
I do have an alternative solution to the project without adding an item to tax the people of St. Lucie County.
 
Please let me know what you think and I would very much appreciate an answer to all my inquiries.
 
Thank you for reading my email.
 
Sincerely,
 
 
Nelly Spengler

Dear Commissioners,
 
I hope you received my email. Since I noticed there are people who shows the willingness and eagerness to put this trauma center, and I am not willing to tax the residents of St. Lucie County who are already suffering a lot financially and mentally. I am going to set aside part of norock.org/nosmog.org to get donations from people to set up this project. I already collected names of people showing agreement to this project including all your names and I hope you and these people will be generous enough to dig down into their personal pocket.
 
The site should be up and running by tomorrow.
 
I feel this is not the way to support such project for a lifetime by taxing the people. If I get hospitalized I pay for everything and with insufficient money, the hospital puts a lien on my house until I pay off the debt. My husband and I can't even apply for unemployment benefit if my husband's company goes out of business as he is self-employed. So where's the justice and fairness?Whatever amount- 25 cents or $50- does not seem big for you. But add up all the expenses - life, health, car, property, liability insurances and all sorts of taxes and assessment fees, food, car repair,mortgage, etc. it does not just add to $100/year. Take a look at the itemized property tax and you'll see what I mean!

As what probably everybody would notice, SFWMD assessment, Everglades restoration, and all other county taxes keep on increasing every year. This does not guarantee at all to disappear and will drag everybody down the pit, just like what is happening with health and property insurance. We're all paying for those people who can't get insurance and government is now a full pledge insurance company and I'm paying for that too! I'm already paying a lot of money on school and the county when I am not even enjoying or offered any services in return for even a single cent of my tax. A bond was issued in the 80's to pave Carlton dirt road and that just disappeared in thin air! Up to now, the road is still dirt road. I'm not complaining about it but after knowing the story behind it, I'm furious!

SOLUTION:

As a way to generate income or donation to the trauma center, they can offer people a share of their company stocks as shareholder or anybody who wants to donate will have their name engraved on each cement blocks, fence or on the pavers, or rooms in the trauma center can be named after the donors. Gold, silver, or copper lettering will be a little bit more donors e.g. $500,000.00 . A room will be more than that or if they want a granite stone. Let's turn it into a business instead of taxing the residents. In return, it will be free lifetime advertisement/publicity to the community. They can even ask Huzeinga, Willie Gary (who's airplane lavatory is inlaid with gold) and other millionaires for donation and free lifetime advertisement!Another way to generate income is through membership. For so many dollars per month, you can avail of the clinic at discounted rate, and you'll never be turned down or neglected service, and the member will get immediate attention instead of waiting for several hours on the hallway to get a room.Though, I can't guarantee death will be prevented-as a lot of people I know does not want to be treated in Lawnwood.
 
 Benches, sitting rooms, trees can also be planted with donors' name. Lawnwood can even invite do-gooders from Hollywood and they will have their names/footprints/handprints or whatever displayed in public. That will also draw tourists to see the famous stars!
 
So that is my business proposal. Save the $150,000 going to be spent on referendum and use it to send invitations to all dignitaries, stars, etc.

Dear Commissioners:
 
A recent article was published for a New Lawnwood Trauma Center, asking St. Lucie County to fund the project using taxpayers’ money. Perhaps a noble idea but bad, bad news for ailing taxpayers already overburdened by high property taxes and high insurance rates.

I recently sent an e-mail to all St. Lucie County Commissioners about granting free funding and tax credits to businesses on the backs of taxpayers: it is not right to fund companies and pay for their company expenses (such as electricity) without getting it returned (as, for example, if a loan were granted). By giving handouts, they not only set precedent but provide a perfect blueprint for anybody who wants free stuff from our County.

Now the corporate welfare idea is taking off -- with vigor!

With the slump in real estate sales, burgeoning and still unsolved property tax escalations and rampant insurance rate increases and cancellations, this is not the time to keep charging corporate welfare expenses to taxpayers. This is the time to start cutting -- everywhere! -- and plan the budget wisely. Counting your chickens from the egg carton is a perfect recipe for doom.

FYI: HCA, Inc. –the parent company of Lawnwood Medical Center, 4th QTR 2006 results include gains on investments of $103 million, gains on sales of facilities of $159 million. With 4th qtr revenue of $6.5 Billion. This company does not need money from the struggling-taxpayers.

Is this additional tax increase justifiable to us - taxpayers? If another entity wants to build a new facility in St. Lucie County without cost to the taxpayers, why not let them do it!
 
Below is an article published at TCPALM:
 
The Treasure Coast could have its own hospital trauma center by the fall.
That's if St. Lucie County voters agree in June to create a new tax district that the average homeowner would pay $50 to per year. The money would fund the center's specialty doctors and staff. Lawnwood Regional Medical Center and Heart Institute in Fort Pierce has received state approval to operate the center for St. Lucie, Martin and Okeechobee counties. The center likely would also be used by trauma patients in Indian River County, rather than Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne.


Lawnwood is seeking County Commission approval for a June 12 referendum. The hospital wants the rapid vote so the trauma center can open by the end of September.
Whether voters will be able to make an informed choice prior to the vote is up in the air. While Lawnwood should be commended for initiating potential creation of the center, there are numerous questions and issues that must be addressed beforehand.

One of the biggest philosophical issues that must be addressed is whether taxpayers should channel $7 million a year into a for-profit hospital. Another is the tax issue.

With Treasure Coast residents — and residents across the state — fighting over high property taxes, are voters in the county really willing to increase their property taxes for a trauma center? Is this a county must-have priority?

On Lawnwood's side is that it has agreed to fund the cost of the referendum, estimated at $150,000.

Last year, the Hospital Corporation of America invested $12 million in Lawnwood to handle trauma cases. A medical director for the trauma center was recently hired.

While Lawnwood is a for-profit hospital, Beth Williams, director of public relations and marketing, noted the hospital is a major contributor to nonprofit groups in the county and last year wrote off $70 million in charity care.

The tax — 25 cents per $1,000 of taxable property value — would $4 million for specialty doctors, such as neurosurgeons, and $3 million for staff hiring and training.

The county's fire board, operating as a trauma board, would administer the funds.

Local taxpayers support about half the state's 23 trauma centers. Many of the trauma cases that originate on the Treasure Coast are taken to St. Mary's Medical Center in Palm Beach County. Even though about a third of the patients at St. Mary's are from the Treasure Coast, neither St. Lucie nor Martin County contributes to operation of the trauma center.

The trauma center at St. Mary's, which is owned by Tenet Healthcare, is funded by Palm Beach County taxpayers as part of $360 they annually pay to the Health Care District of Palm Beach County. But Palm Beach County is not the smaller Treasure Coast.

The Treasure Coast will need a trauma center; it might need it now. How to pay for it and who operates it are other key questions that must be answered. Perhaps one day Martin Memorial might be willing to pay the the load, at St. Lucie West, without new taxes.

Let the debate begin.

MARTIN'S TAKE

Martin Memorial Health Systems officials do not believe there are enough trauma patients on the Treasure Coast to justify a trauma center, according to Mark E. Robitaille, chief operating officer.

A higher priority for the area is building more emergency rooms in St. Lucie West and its growing population. The hospital will try again this week to get state approval for an 80-bed hospital there with a focus on emergency care and obstetrics.

This will be the seventh time Martin Memorial has attempted to build a hospital in St. Lucie, but Robitaille said he believes population growth and increased occupancy rates at area hospitals will demonstrate the need.