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.