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Frosty Taylor
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| Joined: | Mon Jan 16th, 2006 |
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Posted: Fri Oct 17th, 2008 05:27 am |
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Letter to the Editor
Bail-out Blues? Just Wait!
Are you unhappy that a massive infusion of taxpayer’s money is required to calm the economy because Congress failed to notice the action of Fannie and Freddie until it was too late? Just to refresh your memory, here is a thumbnail synopsis of what transpired: Congress had a noble idea in mind – it wanted to assist more low-income people to become homeowners. So it lowered the requirements lending institutions used to determine if a loan should be made, thus allowing many more families to purchase a home. With this larger demand for homes, coupled with lowered criteria for loans, the result was pretty simple: Housing prices increased significantly and larger loans were made – sometimes for no money down and for more than the actual cost of the home. The result? When the homeowners were unable to make their house payments, the loans went bad, resulting in a near complete failure of the US Economy. It was a noble idea that did not work.
In the late 1990’s, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors advised taxpayers that the County Hospital was in big trouble. They wanted to close the hospital and stop the flow of red ink. Some (just like Freddie and Fannie supporters) thought the hospital should remain in business, red ink be dammed. Supporters fostered legislation placing the issue on the ballot: either close the hospital or create a special taxing district to fund it. The Supervisors breathed a big sigh of relief – either way they had removed a dead horse from their budget. (Smart folks, those Supervisors! I can see why they receive National Awards for being fiscally responsible.)
An emotional campaign followed – a campaign with all of the hospitals in the region telling us that we HAD to pass this, or we would be in dire straights for healthcare; a campaign telling us that ‘this is the only teaching hospital in AZ’, and if we close it we will have no new doctors; a campaign with a horribly scarred burn victim pleading for us to ‘vote for the new health district or lose the burn center’.
And, just like congress did with Fannie and Freddie, the taxpayers of Maricopa County said “Yes” to the new taxing district.
Now, a few years later, just like Fannie and Freddie, the real big problem shows up: MONEY – or, a shortage of it. We now have a hospital board (like The CEO’s of Fannie and Freddie) who are, in the opinion of this writer, are ‘raping’ the taxpayers – just like Fannie and Freddie have. For example, we currently have a board that ‘rubber stamps’ the expenditure requests of the hospital operations people, a CEO who makes a base salary of $368,000 per year, and they have plans on the drawing board for a new $600,000,000 hospital. Yes, $6 MILLION. This hospital district operates 11 clinics in the valley, all in direct competition with tax-paying doctors and dentists in private practice. (Aren’t you glad you don’t have a taxpayer funded competitor in your market?) At the last board meeting, the board voted to DOUBLE YOUR TAXES to help pay for their spending. The main difference in this coming bailout and the Fannie and Freddie bailout, is that this time, Congress is not going to OK it – the taxpayers of Maricopa County are! We are on-track to give a huge bailout (tax money) to this taxing district. The tax increase for next year is just the beginning.
My position is simple: Elect people to the Board who think for themselves, and then act in a manner that is respectful of the taxpayers in Maricopa County. No more “rubber stamps!”
Here are some facts that are not ‘common knowledge’: hospitals are being bought up and built at a rapid pace – why? Why has the IRS advised some area hospitals that they no longer can file as “non-profit” entities? Could it be that the Maricopa County Hospital is being used as a “dumping ground” for people who are either uninsured or under insured, pushing the cost of their healthcare off on the taxpayers and increasing the profitability of those “other” hospitals? I wonder…..
Think about it folks – just like Fannie and Freddie, you have been given warning after warning about the upcoming bailout that you will be forced to fund. I hope we can learn from our previous mistakes. Just like the relaxing of the requirements to make a loan to enable low income people to buy a home, the noble idea of a county hospital to provide healthcare paid for by the taxpayers is a bad idea – hospitals cannot, by law, refuse treatment to patients. Let’s remove government intervention from healthcare, and let free enterprise solve the problem.
Lyle Tuttle
623-583-2354
L.Tuttle@cox.net
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