Yes. I know that the hospital district election DID NOT PASS. And I don't think, now that people are educated, at least to some degree about the very real and many issues involved, that it will pass if offered again. Just in case, I saw something in the Glen Rose Reporter newspaper on Feb 12, 2009.   As we mentioned a week or so ago, there was a question at one of the two Town Hall meetings put on by Gary Marks that we attended, in which a participant asked about whether the current tax set aside for indigent care would be taken OFF the taxes for Somervell County (ie, if you say that that 3.5 cents actually moves into the hospital district account, you would assume you would take it OFF the somervell county taxes.) But no, according to this article.

Questions have also been raised over future taxpayer dollars. As property owners face an estimated 7-cent tax increase per $100 in value under the hospital district, many have asked if they could expect to see a corresponding 3.5-cent drop under the county.

Ford said he would reasonably expect the county’s tax rate to drop, but could not commit such a change.

Wirt agreed.

“That 3.5 cents is in our budget this year for the first payment to the CO. But we don’t know what the needs of the county will be, so I can’t say positively the tax rate will drop,” Wirt said. “Definitely, we will not have to put that 3.5 cents toward the hospital but that’s not to say we wouldn’t need to put it somewhere else.”

I'm not going to quibble over whether the above may be accurate or not, but the point is that not only would have, if the hospital district passed, raised taxes for the hospital district to probably 7 cents per 100 property valuation, but IF the 3.5 cents was NOT taken off (and you can see nobody wants to guarantee they would do it) that would be ANOTHER 3.5 cents bringing it to at least 10 cents per 100. Just as I said on January 21 2009.

Remember that if this oinker gets up and tries to come out of the pen again.