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.