Why Outrage over $4 Million for 4-B and Not for 14.x Million for One Private Business? (Glen Rose)Somervell County Salon-Glen Rose, Rainbow, Nemo, Glass....Texas


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Why Outrage over $4 Million for 4-B and Not for 14.x Million for One Private Business? (Glen Rose)
 


24 July 2009 at 9:26:28 AM
salon

I posted yesterday a rough transcript of the audio from when the certificate of obligation was being discussed in Somervell County Commissioner's Court last year. Got a very insightful comment from a reader.

Just a couple of comments on this. First off, that lease is for one dollar.... PER YEAR. (Look at the PDF in the link to the left-doesn't include, of course, the payments that GRMF will have to make back to the county starting next year. I am not positive on the nursing home terms as I wasn't paying as much attention to that as GRMC at the time of the last hospital district election.) I wonder about other counties in Texas-if there are counties that lease out their facilities to private entities to run them, is it standard to do it for only ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR?

On your comment about the 4b plans versus the CO. On the money, no pun intended. On the one hand, the money to fund projects such as Oakdale and the River Walk come from sales tax monies generated from hotel or restaurant use. As I recall, it was explained initially that the bulk of that money comes from tourism, and not necessarily from local citizens. So, regardless of how one feels about which project should be funded or how much, nonetheless the funding isn't something, at least at this point, that is coming from those who pay taxes and live in the boundaries of the City of Glen Rose.

Compare that to the CO. Here you have a huge bond that passed very quietly and had issues regarding whether the taxpayer in the county should be loaning money to a private entity. In fact, it was so crucial to consider this that the IRS had a hearing for people to express whether they considered that appropriate. And that money had to be guaranteed FROM the taxpayer, which is why there was a hearing later in the year to increase the tax rate. As it was explained then, it HAD to be done because the State of Texas will not allow counties to have budgets that don't cover all indebtedness. And I sure know about the effects of that when I got my property tax bill. So the taxpayer is on the hook to fund the private non profit foundation that is supposed to start making payments back in the spring of this next year. It also seems clear to me that somebody or somebodies hoped to get the hospital district passed before then, because it would not be GRMF who would then have to be making the payments but the taxpayer. And not just 14.5 million, you understand, but actually more like double the payback due to interest and other fees.  Had the commissioners already been talking about forming a hospital district at the point of issuing the COs or did that come up later as a plan to get GRMF out of having to pay back the money? Regardless, the question ought to be, why should the taxpayer have to pick up the cost of paying back a loan that was engineered by GRMF and supposed to be paid BACK by GRMF, not the taxpayer? And yet that is what would have happened had the hospital district election passed (it did not.)

I don't know what happened with Meridian Manor, haven't checked lately. But I do get the Bosque County newspaper, will update if I read anything relevant. And, readers, if you know anything about these subjects, please weigh in.

It is very clear that deception was the intent all along. Only problem was that  the tax district failed. You know, the City of Glen Rose has taken so much heat for proposing a $4 million CO mainly because they have promoted so much discussion. But why hasn't anybody (or any newspaper) discussed the $14.5 million CO by the county to benefit a single and private (and government) business. When you think about how darned good Mr. Marks has it, it gets disgusting! Here we have a nice building with nice equipment on prime property, with a brand new addition, paid for by the county (us taxpayers).

You'd think that our representation (Judge Walter Maynard and Lloyd Wirt--who was not even at that March 2008 meeting when the judge and other 3 approved the CO idea)would seek a decent return on the county (taxpayer's) investment. NOPE! They go and lease it for $1 per month. Further, they don"t ask GRMF for any kind of monthly payment or annual payment on the new addition, they just further represent us by raising our taxes to pay for it. Then they try to tack on a hospital tax district to boot!

There is serious crookedness involved here and I hope folks will continue to expose it! We have a seriously bad case of a bunch of good ol' boys scratching each other's backs, at our expense. I seriously doubt that this type of thing could happen many other places. Too bad for us in Glen Rose!!! Not only are we completely funding a private organization to run our hospital, but we are sucker punched later when we patronize the hospital and receive exorbitant (and often erroneous) bills! What an unfortunate double whammy! Too bad for Glen Rose!!!

By the way, I wonder how Meridian Manor is recovering from the embarrassing take over attempt by Rose Beck and GRMF?


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Latest Blog Post by salon -Video- Somervell County Commissioners Court Special Sessions (2) Dec 23 2019
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