My opinion about whether Somervell County Hospital District should spend taxpayer money in Hood County is well known to readers of my blog as I have expressed it repeatedly. I do not believe that taxpayers in Somervell County should be budgeting and spending one penny of money in Hood County, which has its own hospital district. When Glen Rose Medical Center first put a clinic in gated community Pecan Plantation, GRMC was a private hospital unsupported by public funds. A hospital district is formed by the boundaries of the territory, which does not include Hood County, and is for the public benefit of the citizens who live in that district. However, GRMC believes there is not enough growth to support additional *base* ie patients, to keep GRMC in surplus. What Chip Harrison and Ray Reynolds are proposing is that more money be spent in Pecan Plantation at the Pecan Family Medical Center, but also to set up an additional clinic at Decordova and Acton. Both the latter entities are in Hood County. Hood County residents pay ZERO taxes, ie, NOTHING to the Hood County Hospital District. I just called the Hood County appraisal office to see if that has changed and was told that there is NO tax rate for the hospital in Hood County.

Chip Harrison, amazingly, said that Somervell County residents pay NO taxes for anything in Hood County. Really. Either he is the biggest fool on the planet or the biggest con artist. OF COURSE Somervell pays taxes to maintain, pay leases of, use equipment for, etc,Pecan Family Medical Center, including a loan GRMC took out a few years ago that went, in part, for remodeling a those premises. Otherwise, why the fool would THIS be on the agenda or would anything with regard to Pecan premises be in the budget? If Pecan Family Medical Center, ON ITS OWN, paid for its own lease, then there would be no need for approval from the board. 

And it's not just Pecan Plantation. The board wants to spend more of Somervell County taxpayer money to benefit yet ANOTHER rich community in Hood County, Decordova, as well as put in a clinic to try to snatch business away from the clinic Lake Granbury Medical Center operates in Acton.

Is it proper for a district that is defined by the boundaries of the county line to spend money in another hospital district where, again, the residents pay NO taxes, and at least 2 of the communities talked about are behind a gate? Sometimes people that don't understand the situation point to the clinics that CHS operates in Glen Rose, as a hospital entity that LEASES property from the Hood County hospital district. Glen Rose Medical Center is NOT a private hospital that leases property from Somervell County Hospital District but is a PUBLIC entity that taxes residents. And Somervell County Hospital Board is proposing that MORE of our taxes go to help Hood County residents. 

The reason given is that GRMC needs to grow its base, and Somervell County is not growing fast enough, so they need to get clients from the neighboring county. But that is NOT why a county has a hospital district, which ostensibly is to serve its own citizens. The argument given regarding this is that by treating residents of Hood County and using doctors that refer patients to Glen Rose Medical Center, it benefits the hospital and possibly turns a profit. (If so, then why for the past two months has Pecan Family Medical Center been down? Total Revenue Over Expense) But the clinic at Pecan Plantation is not in a publicly accessible area, but rather cannot be entered without explicit permission, either by having an appointment already with a doctor there or by a resident. (And, I might add, the residents WANT it that way, otherwise why would they be living in a gated community where the public cannot freely enter). So, essentially, taxpayer money is going to pay for the convenience of people of means in a different hospital district. Untimately, if Pecan Famiy Medical Center pays something back, that STILL says nothing about the lease, etc, including 501a money being transferred back and forth. 

I see that on the agenda is a request for the Texas Attorney General to weigh in on whether it is even legal in the first place to spend taxpayer money from one district in another district. Suppose that Hood County Hospital District or a private citizen decided to sue over, first Glen Rose's predatory actions in expanding in Hood County OR a Somervell County taxpayer said "Enough, why are my taxes going for rich people in another hospital district"? Andy Lucas, county attorney in Somervell, told me a couple of years ago that the civil remedy for this is a lawsuit.