Travis County Commissioners Court
September 14, 2004
Item 15
Item no. 15. Consider and take appropriate action on issues regarding the
implementation of the Travis County hospital district, including the following:
a. Tax rate verification from maxwell, locke and ritter; and -- by the way,
the hospital district board of managers chairman did advise me that they are
still working on the main interlocal in 15 b and in his view and the add traitor's
view and the county judge's view we ought to call this item up next week to
give them an additional week to do further work and we can discuss that next
week.
>> okay. Judge, I guess before we get started on that, I
would maybe like to disclose something and let everyone know that my wife
is employed by seton hospital as a department assistant coordinator. It's
a low enough position whereby she is not really involved and wouldn't been
at all from what we are doing here as far as the hospital district is concerned,
but I wanted to disclose this to the public and also to the court. If the
court has any problems with me deliberating or acting on this, now is the
time to let me know. Otherwise I would like to go ahead and participate in
this process of the hospital district since it does involve seton hospital.
My wife actually what she does, some of her duties, she coordinates the department
of intensive care and also ccu, coronary care units and basically organizing
to make sure that they are functional as far as her tasks. This is just one
of her tasks that she does at seton over on 38th street. So I just wanted
to disclose that to the public. And let you know that's not a managerial situation.
It's just a situation whereby she is employed by seton, which I thought the
proper thing to do was to disclose that.
>> okay. You chatted with legal about that?
>> yes. I have. John is that the right --
>> you expressed that very well and on the matter -- certainly
the matter before us today, it should not be an issue. And she's low enough
down the tier I don't think it's going to be affecting --
>> she won't benefit directly from anything.
>> the votes that you would be taking here.
>> okay. That set your mind there mr. Maxwell.
>> that does, judge Biscoe. Judge Biscoe, members of the
Commissioners court, my name is earl maxwell, I’m with the accounting firm
maxwell, locke and ritter, to my right is sharon smith, my senior associate
who has perform and overseen the work that we have performed at both the Travis
County and the city of Austin in connection with the reduction in tax rate
related to the health and human services expenditures that will be transferred
to the hospital district in this coming year. All of you should have a copy
of our report. Sharon and I reviewed a draft of this report a week ago Friday
with a team of county people assembled by judge Biscoe, so we have been through
this line by line in great detail. I'll give you a very quick summary of this
report. On the first page, we begin our procedures and the findings and you
will find those procedures and findings shown as roman numerals I through
iv on pages 2, 3, and 4. And then on -- on the bottom of page 4, is procedure
number 5, which is a summary of all of the procedures and in that particular
statement we summarize our conclusions regarding this work relating to the
tax rate reduction. We say that we have performed all of the procedures in
roman numerals I through iv above and know that know exceptions that would
result in a material modification to the reduction in the county's effective
tax rate of .0144, for ad valorem taxes as required by chapter 281 of the
Texas health and safety code, section 281.122. And that is really our conclusion.
We go on to say on the last page that we were not engaged to conduct an audit
of the county's financial statements, but we have performed the procedures
and have disclosed all of those findings to you. On the very last page of
the report, we show as exhibit 1, the worksheet that shows the estimated city
and county tax rate reduction in revenue to the district at a combined tax
rate. And you'll see these are the same numbers that you have seen before
in connection with this discussion and that's .0144 tax rate reduction for
the Travis County. And .0635 tax rate reduction for the city of Austin. We,
as you know, we have concluded our work on the county and we have signed our
reports and delivered those to you and on the city we have substantially completed
our field work and expect -- we are resolving a couple of issues related to
the estimated taxes. The -- the period of the estimate for the tax rate reduction
and we hope to get those issues resolved in the next day or so. And so we
will be in a position to meet with the city people toward the end of this
week and conclude our report. But at this point I know of nothing that we
have seen in our work that would result in a material modification to their
tax rate reduction, either. It's not over until it's over, but I can make
that statement based on what I know at this point.
>> we had a very brief discussion, I’m on exhibit 1, the
very last page. Why did there wind up being two different collection rates
for the city and the county considering anything the city is in the county
and the county collects on behalf of everybody, a unified bill. Why did they
think that it was 98% for the city, but it's 98.5 if not higher for the county.
>> i'll say in terms of that collection rate they have taken
a more conservative approach to that estimate. And that's the amount that
he they had budgeted in the coming year. So fits higher, what does that mean.
>> that's good.
>> that's good works.
>> that's what I mean by being conservative.
>> that just means more money for the hospital district will
be generated as opposed to less.
>> yes.
>> and we have executed a contract for the district with
the tax assessor collector?
>> yes.
>> any other questions or comments?
>> this is exactly where we thought we would end up. I move
that we formally receive the statutory required tax reindication rate study
from the accounting firm of maxwell,locke and ritter. Any discussion of the
motion?
>> second.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you
all very much for your very prompt work. And earle as your long-time friend
let me advise you to get your invoice in as soon as possible.
>> we'll do that, thanks.
>> thank you.
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Last Modified: Thursday, October 27, 2005 10:28 AM