Petition Signatures Sought to Rollback Hospital Tax Rate

Citing a tax rate increase of 84.6 percent as excessive, Jerry Calame of Fairfield has been knocking on doors in Freestone County with a petition that could require another special election concerning property taxes for Fairfield Hospital District.
If the petition drive is successful, and the subsequent rollback election approved by voters, the average Freestone County property owner (calculated at $177,090 value by the Central Appraisal District) could see a savings of $137.77 on their tax bill.
On the other hand, Fairfield Hospital District could see an overall decrease of approximately $980,535 in expected annual revenue for the district and Freestone Medical Center for the coming fiscal year.
Back in May, voters approved raising the tax rate cap from .12 cents to .25 cents, which is the current average for hospital districts in the State of Texas.
This was the first such increase in over thirty years in Fairfield, since the hospital district was first created in 1987.
Subsequently, following printed notices and public hearings, Fairfield’s hospital board approved setting a tax rate of 21.5 cents per $100 property value for the 2019-2020 Fiscal Year during a meeting held September 5, 2019.
Although the adopted rate is 3.5 cents lower than the tax rate cap approved by voters, it does exceeds the 13.7 cents rollback tax rate.
Any time a taxing entity adopts a tax rate that exceeds the rollback rate, the law allows for a petition by citizens for a reduction.
“We respect the rights of our citizens to petition a roll-back election,” says FHD Board Advisor Tony Price.
According to Price, the Fairfield Hospital District Board was also required to seek supportive petitions of local citizens in order to hold the special election this past Spring when they sought to raise the tax cap. “Once the petition was verified, we called the special election and 87% of the voters supported our request for a new tax cap,” he said.
That measure passed with a vote of 493 to 78.
The rollback petition, currently being circulation, will require signatures from ten percent of registered voters, a total of 605 in this case, in order to trigger an election to reduce this year’s adopted tax rate.
The petition must be filed within 90 days of the tax rate adoption, which will fall on the first week in December.
Once signatures have been validated as belonging to residents who are registered to vote in the Fairfield Hospital District, a resolution must be adopted within twenty days of receipt, and a rollback election set.
If the rollback fails, the hospital district’s adopted rate will stand.
If the rollback election passes, the tax rate must be reduced to the rollback rate, which for the Hospital District, would be .137 (or 13.7 cents per $100).
“All members of the FHD board and administration are local citizens and the tax rate adopted also affects Board members’ property,” states FHD Board Advisor Price. “For more than 30 years the members of FHD board have been conservative in taxing our citizens, and themselves.”
Historically, Fairfield Hospital District has operated below the original tax rate cap, setting the tax rate as low as 4.7 cents in 2014 and 2015, and 5.3 cents in 2016.
The tax rate was raised in 2017 to 11.3 cents to assist with the transition to the newly created Freestone Medical Center, after East Texas Medical Center (ETMC) pulled out of a ten-year lease of the hospital facilities, several years early. The following year’s tax rate was 11.6 cents.
“The adopted rate this year was approved by the board because it is believed that the new rate would provide the best opportunity for Freestone Medical Center to become financially viable for the long-term future,” stated Price.
Fairfield Hospital District follows the boundary of the Fairfield Independent School District. Petition signatures of Freestone County property owners living inside the FISD boundary would be considered valid.
Serving on the Fairfield Hospital District Board includes President George Robinson, Vice-President Jeff Taylor, Secretary Andy Awalt, Board members Carman Mannen, David Lott, Brent Moore and Vance Oglesbee.