For the second time in a year, voters will be asked to approve taxpayer monies to support their local hospital in Fairfield, Texas.
A Special Election has been called by Fairfield Hospital District (FHD) on May 2, 2020 for the purpose of voting FOR or AGAINST the proposition: “Reducing the tax rate in Fairfield Hospital District for the current year from 0.215 to 0.137203.”
This election has been called in response to a citizen’s petition that was submitted in December, with six hundred and sixty-nine valid signatures, calling for an election to reduce the tax rate.
Following the budget process in September, FHD had set a tax rate of 21.5 cents per $100 property value for the 2019-2020 Fiscal Year. This amount exceeded the official 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, as is the case here.
This will be the second time voters will be asked to approval an increase in the tax rate.
In May of 2019, voters overwhelmingly approved raising the tax cap from .12 cents to .25 cents. That proposition passed with 87% of voters (493-78) support the increase.
This was the first such increase in the tax rate cap in over thirty years, since the hospital district was first formed in 1987.
Working under the original tax rate cap, FHD successfully launched Freestone Medical Center, a new hospital entity created from scratch, following East Texas Medical Center’s early exit from their ten-year lease in 2016.
Notably, of the seven hospital facilities released by ETMC during that time, Freestone Medical Center is the only one that has remained open continuously.
FHD board members, and Freestone Medical Center (FMC) leadership, have voiced their need for taxpayer assistance now to meet their ultimate goal of becoming self-sustaining; eventually operating independently of taxpayer monies.
Early voting concerning this proposition will begin April 20, 2020.
