The town hall on the creation of the Sierra County Special Hospital District was not very well attended—maybe 20 people of whom half were hospital board members or presenters from the New Mexico Hospital Association.
Who sponsored the town hall? That was left unclear, possibly to obscure the legal line between campaigning for and informing the public about the special hospital district.
I say the town hall was campaign stop, since two men from the New Mexico Hospital Association were the spokesmen and our elected officials were silent except for Travis Day, who officiated. Day is Sierra County Commission and Sierra Vista Hospital Joint Powers Commission chairperson.
Our elected officials who serve on the hospital JPC cannot—by law—tell the public how to vote. They needed stand-ins. Troy Clark, the CEO of the New Mexico Hospital Association and Dan Weeks, who said he has worked as a lobbyist/policy consultant for the hospital association since the 1990s, were their proxies. The hospital association makes money by selling memberships, insurance, policy advice and other services to hospitals.
Our elected officials are allowed to factually inform its citizens, but they have chosen to avoid the arduous task of giving facts and evidence—as they have for the four years they have been trying to create a special hospital district.
The first two attempts sought to circumvent their constituents’ knowing anything. Twice our elected officials had our legislative representatives carry bills, first Rebecca Dow and then Crystal Diamond, but their fellow-legislators declined to impose a special hospital district on Sierra Countians. The legislators were probably loathe to impose a taxing district on the people, one that can levy up to 4.25 mills property tax as well as issue general obligation bonds that could further increase property taxes, albeit both require voter approval.
Last and this summer the JPC has been forced to go the local-referendum route to form a special hospital district. Last summer the petition drive to get 492 signatures, that is, 10 percent of those who voted in the last gubernatorial election, failed. The deadline this summer is July 14 (Bastille Day, ironically) for turning in the petitions, otherwise the question of a special hospital district will not be on the November 7 ballot.
During the town hall Clark and Weeks gave the same 30,000-foot view they gave in the 2020 town hall then-Representative Rebecca Dow convened via a Zoom call due to covid. Just as then the talk was all about how the 12-member JPC and nine-member hospital Governing Board were too cumbersome, too argumentative, too contentious. A five-member special hospital district board of trustees, elected by the people, would streamline hospital governance and help attract and retain chief executive officers who don’t want to answer to 21 bosses, Clark said.
This is the single reason, the sole plank presented to voters in the last four years. Day, in a rush, said John Arthur Smith—then the most powerful state senator—and his successor, Crystal Diamond, told him no more funding from the state legislature would be forthcoming if they didn’t form a special hospital district to correct the management and governance problems.
Someone asked why the JPC and governing board weren’t rejiggered to get rid of the the too-many-board-members problem. T or C City Manager Bruce Swingle, who sits on the governing board, said state law on Joint Powers Agreements disallows a different configuration, but an examination of pertinent state law, 11-1-1 through 11-1-7, does not address or control how such commissions form their boards. Day said the current hospital board members “wouldn’t want to give up their power.” But Day previously stated that both boards unanimously voted in favor of the special hospital district, which would do away with both boards, proving they would give up their power.
I think it was Day who said some governing board members will be running for trustee positions on the ballot. The same people who are at the core of the management and governance problem supposedly driving the special hospital district question.
Concerns expressed by myself and another attendee about the taxes and debt that come with forming a special hospital district were minimized by Clark and Weeks. Both emphasized that voters must approve them at the polls before they can be imposed.
But the people approve such taxes and debt without question, I said. For the 18 years I have observed local ballot issues, the people have passed general obligation bonds for the school district about every three years without knowing or asking what the money will be used for. Last November the people approved general obligation bonds to repair the City of Truth or Consequences’ water, wastewater and road infrastructure based on the Chamber of Commerce’s pictures of water leaks and pot holes. The people also renewed the county’s 1.50 mill levy for the hospital with no campaign or information provided to the people.
Gross receipts taxes to pay for the space port, with no sunset, passed with a similar lack of analysis and information.
Regular reporting on where the money went or is going is never given by the elected officials.
It is a foregone conclusion, I told Clark and Weeks, that the people will pass any taxes levied by the special hospital district trustees.
And none of these taxing authorities and their elected officials—Sierra County, Sierra County Soil and Water District, Spaceport Authority, City of T or C, Elephant Butte, Village of Williamsburg, T or C Municipal Schools—are toting up their individually imposed taxes and have no idea how much tax burden or public debt they are loading onto Sierra Countians in general, I pointed out. The hospital district will be yet another load.
“That’s democracy,” Weeks said.
No it isn’t. An informed citizenry is a prerequisite for a democracy, to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson.
The people, in general, not you dear readers, are blindly trusting and following their elected officials and local demagogues. Our elected officials do not inform us sufficiently and the people do not seek to know enough to make informed decisions.
Dan Weeks has indeed been working for the Hospital Association forever. And the Association has been actively involved in working with administrators, regulators and legislators for even longer. I believe he is pretty well respected or he wouldn’t still be around. But I have no real knowledge of their effect on improvements in quality of, or access to, healthcare. Ultimately that isn’t their mission.
Our government leaders are mostly MAGA republicans, as are a majority of the population. Blindly following seems to be their MO.
What can be done to create even a little critical thinking in that lot?
It does seem to me as though the Hospital District needs to be created. Am I reading the above story wrong? No more funding from the state would be a big problem.
Maybe when it all hits he fan the MAGAs will start to wonder why their taxes are growing by leaps and bounds. Not very reassuring to be sure.
The tax paying voting public is advised to review New Mexico Statutes 2021, Chapter 4 (Counties), Article 48A (Special Hospital District) . The entire statute governing Special Hospital Districts (SHD) in New Mexico can be found at: https://law.justia.com/codes/new-mexico/2020/chapter-4/article-48a/. The statute is comprised of 30 sections. Yes–30. In my opinion no-one should get within 100 yards of the SHD petition until they have, as a minimum, attempted to make themselves aware of the ramifications and manifestations of invoking a SHD here in Sierra County. The statute and the associated petiton can accurately be described as financial instruments. The five member SHD board of trustees are tendered significant authorities in the statute relative to the various financial (translation: taxing) aspects of the SHD. Those authorities cover the spectrum from straight up ad valorem mil levies to issuance of revenue bonds, and most importantly, the options (including ad valorem levies) as to how those bonds would be satified. I doubt that any responsible citizen would sign a mortgage, a car loan, or a personal loan without understanding the terms and conditions of those instruments. I advise the public to approach this SHD proposal and this current SHD facilitating petiton with the same due diligence as the aforementioned commitments. If you find, as I have, that there are multiple areas that you do not understand or, you find alarming, be assured you are not alone. In my opinion, there is no way that anyone can make a truly informed decision relative to signing this SHD petiton, or not, without at least a cursory review of the governing statute.
My congratulations to Kathleen Sloan. She was successful in extracting a statement from Mr. Clark (to his credit) that there exists (in his terms) a “potential” for property tax increases as a result of establishing a SHD.
My compliments to Kathleen on a very informative article. Was sorry I couldn’t attend.
Mary Ann