[StBernard] Get going on St. Bernard Parish hospital: Bob Warren

[Westley Annis]

Get going on St. Bernard Parish hospital: Bob Warren

Published: Sunday, November 07, 2010, 6:47 AM

 Bob Warren, The Times-Picayune 

On Tuesday, 4,220 St. Bernard Parish voters clicked the "yes'' tab for an
8-mill tax that will finance operations of the parish's yet-to-be-built
public hospital in Chalmette. It'd be hard to call the 53 percent favorable
vote a mandate, especially when only 29 percent of the registered voters
bothered to show up.

But, still, the tax increase is now a reality.

Now it's time, more than five years after Hurricane Katrina and the levee
breaks combined to destroy the lone hospital in St. Bernard Parish, to get
the thing built.

Construction of the $69 million hospital and medical office building will be
covered by a mix of money funneled through the state and federal government.
The hospital and office building will sit on land donated by the Arlene and
Joseph Meraux Foundation, the private entity created to oversee charitable
spending fueled by the Meraux fortune. Hospital District officials say the
hospital and office building will be built debt free, without the need for
local money.

But operation costs are another story altogether. That's where the 10-year
tax comes in. It will bring in enough money to back $16 million in bonds
that will cover start-up costs of the hospital. By the time the tax is set
to expire, the thought is that the hospital will be bringing in enough money
on its own.

Opposition to the tax ran the gamut.

Some people said government already taxes them too much. Others called on
elected officials to offer up a sales tax or some sort of utility bill fee
instead to spread the financial burden to more folks than just property
owners. Still others wanted someone else -- namely, the Meraux Foundation --
to front the operating cash for the first years of the hospital.

There were also the usual complaints that the politicians had put the tax
proposal onto a ballot to sneak it past a sleepy electorate. While that
certainly happens, it's hard to imagine in this instance the tax issue flew
under the public's radar. There were two public forums during which the
tax's chief backer, Parish Councilman Wayne Landry, debated its merits with
detractors, as well as newspaper stories and countless posts on Internet
forums.

Landry, who also sits on the parish's Hospital Services District, took great
pains to note that the construction costs will be covered by federal and
state money. He painted the tax increase as the only viable solution to
covering the start-up operating costs, ranging from salaries to basic
supplies.

During the council's meeting later Tuesday night, after the fate of the tax
was known, Landry and Councilman George Cavignac, a political ally who also
sits on the Hospital Services District, called out their fellow elected
officials for not doing more to support the tax proposal.

Which is their right -- just as it's the right of any person, elected or
not, to think the tax is a bad idea.

The guess here is that while the tax is a solution, it isn't the only
solution. After all, in politics there's rarely just one solution.
Nonetheless, it's the one that voters chose.

Now, it's up to the powers that be to get the hospital built and see to it
that it's managed efficiently.

There's no way of predicting the future, of course, but it's probably a safe
bet that if, as some tax opponents have predicted, the hospital board comes
back to the electorate in 10 years seeking to renew the tax that the 53
percent who voted yes might go in the other direction -- followed by a very
loud "told you so.''

It's interesting that the tax was passed during a mid-term Congressional
election that, at least nationally, was heavy on pledges of smaller
government, fewer taxes, and often described as a conservative rebuttal to
President Obama's agenda. The Republican candidates on St. Bernard's ballot
all handily carried the parish in their races. One might think this would
have been an election ripe for a fair-sized tax increase to be shot down.

But this one wasn't. Perhaps there's some theory at work here that a
political scientist could more easily dissect.

But I think it's pretty simple: People want a local hospital and at least
4,220 were willing to approve a tax increase for it.



Bob Warren is St. Bernard bureau chief. He can be reached at
bwarren at timespicayune.com or 504.826.3363.