Judge rejects effort to prevent medical school proposition from taking effect

A federal judge Thursday rejected arguments that a Nov. 6 ballot proposition seeking higher property taxes for a medical school in Austin and other health care projects should be stopped from taking effect.

U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel indicated in his ruling that he did not think plaintiffs would ultimately succeed in their lawsuit, which seeks to invalidate Proposition 1, and he refused their request for a preliminary injunction to stop the votes from being canvassed a technical but key step in finalizing the vote.

Central Health is now free to canvass the votes on Monday at noon, as planned, and negotiate contracts for the medical school with the University of Texas and a new teaching hospital to be built by the Seton Healthcare Family, Central Healths lawyer Jim Cousar said.

This is the ruling we hoped for, Cousar said.

The suit by Prop 1 opponents, led by Don Zimmerman, treasurer of the Travis County Taxpayers Union political action committee, claimed that the ballot language was improper and confusing, especially to minority voters. As such it violated the Voting Rights Act, designed to guard against discrimination at the polls, the suit said.

The court holds that plaintiffs have failed to establish a substantial likelihood of prevailing on the merits (and) have an almost impossible burden to demonstrate that the Voting Rights Act provides them the opportunity to challenge the language of Proposition 1, Yeakel said in his 11-page decision.

Stephen Casey, the lawyer for Zimmerman, his PAC and two minority voters, said he is exploring options, including the possibility of appealing to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He argued before Yeakel Wednesday afternoon that the ballot language amounted to cheerleading and that minority voters, whom he said have lower reading comprehension than whites, were more likely to find the wording confusing.

We believe weve got a strong case, Casey said. We obviously disagree with the judge.

Casey noted that Yeakel did not throw out the case and left pending Cousars motion to dismiss the case. Yeakels ruling, however, made clear that the judge has serious concerns about the claims Casey made.

Travis County voters handily approved Prop 1, 55 percent to 45 percent. It raises the property tax Central Health imposes for health care services from 7.89 cents to 12.9 cents, causing average tax bills to rise by $107 in 2014.