Waiting hospitals to make formal request
The Escambia County (Ala.) Commission tabled a resolution Monday to ask the Alabama Attorney General’s Office to give an opinion concerning a statewide amendment and local Legislative bill that currently allows a 4 mill ad valorem tax for county hospitals.
Bills passed by the Alabama Legislature dating back to 1947 allowed the voters to approve the 4-mill tax, which was passed.
Although members of the Escambia County Health Care Authority and three Brewton physicians have appeared before the commission during administrative workshops discussing the financial situation affecting the health care authority, no formal request has been made to the commission to pursue additional revenue.
In a June 4 meeting, administrators from D.W. McMillan Memorial Hospital in Brewton and Atmore Community Hospital said between the two hospitals and clinics they were losing close to $800,000 per year and currently has a loss of about $3.5 million.
Residents in Escambia County currently pay 4 mills of property tax, generating about $1.8 million a year, for county hospital purposes.
The two bills passed by the Legislature in 1940s and 1950s limits the tax for hospitals to no more than 4 mills.
Commission Chairman Raymond Wiggins said no formal request for additional millage has come from the health care authority and during Monday’s commission meeting Karean Reynolds made the motion to table the resolution requesting an attorney general’s opinion on the applicable tax rate for Escambia County. Commissioner Brandon Smith issued the second and the motion carried by unanimous vote.
Wiggins did note that any possible increase in property taxes for the hospitals, if approved by the Alabama Legislature, would require a vote of the people in the county, noting the commission has no legal authority to increase property taxes.
The original bills passed, an approved by the voters of the county, designated 2 mills to be used for the payment of outstanding hospital building warrants issued and sold by the county hospital board. The other two mills were earmarked for the maintenance of the hospitals.
In other business Monday, the commission:
- Approved an on-call engineering service policy that will allow County Engineer Parker Ross to contract with design engineers without having to bring all contracts back before the commission.
The commission did approve the design contract for Pleasant Hill Drive in Nokomis and approved Michael Baker International of Mobile to do the design work on that project.
Ross said the policy would allow the engineering department to reach out and negotiate with a design consultant.
- Approved the submission of a grant to the Alabama Department of Transportation for the Escambia County Alabama Transit System (ECATS).
- Approved an application for a Title III grant for the Agency on Aging.
