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