From the outset, the civic argument over whether Central Health should raise its tax rate to help fund a medical school had a very familiar ring to it.
The health care district proposed raising its tax rate from 7.89 cents per $100 valuation to 12.89 cents per $100 valuation. That nickel also triggered a memory of the election that established a tax base for Austin Community College. When proposed, the community college ran into a wall of objections. Today, it is difficult to imagine Central Texas without it.
Travis County voters took a huge step forward by giving Central Health the authority it sought to raise its tax rate in order to meet its commitment to a complicated funding scheme that will establish the medical school and a teaching hospital and pay for clinics. The vote was 54.7 percent for and 45 percent against.
It was a big commitment. UT officials estimated the cost of the medical school at $4.1 billion over its first 12 years. UT will cover $300 million, plus an additional $40 million over the first eight years for equipment. Seton Healthcare Family will cover $1.9 billion, mostly for medical education and training, plus $250 million to build a teaching hospital. Seton currently contributes $45 million a year to cover medical education costs.
UT officials asked Central Health to cover $420 million over the 12 years, with the rest coming from state aid, grants and other sources. The Central Health tax increase would round out the federal, state and Seton money going toward the financing of the medical school.
The approval was validation for Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, who assumed the role of head cheerleader, chief fund raiser and senior disciplinarian for the effort. He worked hard, and there is no denying that he incurred considerable political risk by championing the project. Now, for good or ill he will forever be tied to the project. A proposal of that magnitude was bound to draw opposition, and opponents hammered on the percentage increase of the tax and questioned at high decibel why the University of Texas, which will operate the medical school, didnt do more financially.
Again, people who have been around awhile could have sworn they were hearing echoes of the arguments over establishing a community college.
In retrospect, establishing an open enrollment institution of higher learning was a no-brainer if youll pardon the expression. When ACC opened its doors to its first students in 1973, it had one campus and shared a governing board with the Austin school district.
Today, Austin Community Colleges service area covers 7,000 square miles that include Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, Caldwell, Blanco, and Gillespie counties, plus a portion of Gonzales County. Leander, Del Valle, Manor, Round Rock, Elgin and Hays County taxpayers have approved taxing themselves in return for that inclusion.
As that brief recount of the history of ACC confirms, education makes for success.
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Med school debate had a familiar ring