Travis County Commssioners Court
January 7, 2003
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Item 21
Number 21. We will put together another request to look at basically what expenses they had. Deal with the city of Austin and Travis County in a request, as soon as I get that, I will make sure that it goes to the court. The last time we discussed the -- the centers, as I indicated in my e-mail, I told him basically the gist of our conversation. They are having other discussions about that. He raised an interesting question that I had not heard. That was they questioned whether if a district is created, we have the legal authority not to put the centers in because your ability to use tax revenue in health is transferred to the district.
>> that is a point.
>> yeah, so --
>> but we just left that hanging, basically.
>> well, I think -- yeah, I think it's going to have to be a discussion about creating a hospital district. Taxpayers need to know that we are going to transfer all of the money or tax that we cover to cover health costs over to the district as well as the city. And so I think we need to have a credible discussion about -- about the savings to taxpayers.
>> when is this [inaudible] to appear, I guess, well -- I will hold up on that one. But I guess my concern, though, is the educational piece, commissioner. How do you think that should be handled as far as --
>> well, I think -- I think we are going to have to put everything on the table. And I don't think it's -- it throand a credible discussion for the -- it lends to a credible discussion for the public about what's going to happen if they vote to create a hospital district if we start saying, well, all of that but not this. Well, that but not this. And so you start making exceptions to -- to a hospital or proposal for a hospital district that we are asking the taxpayers to vote for, and it -- having exceptions to it doesn't seem fair to me.
>> I would say we just have a full understanding of what turning over of all assets to a district means? Because the county, not the hospital district, but the county has the mandated responsibility related to indigent health care. We need to make sure that -- that the shifting of all of this does not show leave what we are supposed to do unfulfilled. We have the mandate, not the hospital.
>> I think then what we need to research then is what happens to county mandates when that gets created. But that's a little different than talking about assets and other things. We are talking about mandates, statutory mandates.
>> the strict key thing, too, on the asset is that we have facilities that are joints health and human services facilities and are being constructed as such. Does that mean the entire building? Does that mean half of the building? Or do we have to set up a situation where the entire building is still owned by Travis County and the hospital district is responsible for leasing that piece of that building that is only related to health? I don't know the answer to it at all. But there's some logistical pieces of this that are just not oh, you just turn over all of the assets. Let's talk about that because it's not separate and distinct.
>> ied in it won't be simplistic approach --
>> as opposed to a satellite office for t.n.r. It has one purpose to it. Health and human services is blended in.
>> maybe we can address this to what effect that would have on county mandates.
>> mr. Hydrick yesterday phoned me as well and he's trying to pull together a Saturday retreat to work on kind of talk through a lot of these things that are kinds of still outstanding there. So -- so I have pledged my commitment to make myself available. I know the judge has as well.
>> will there be a -- there will be a need to discuss this further in the future. [one moment please for change in captioners]
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:25 AM