It’s not the best of times to raise taxes — even if it’s for the best of reasons.
And a major addition to Pratt Regional Medical Center is the best of reasons given that its core structures and core systems are rapidly aging and at risk of failure, possibly tomorrow. Those same structures and systems are obsolete. They were designed for another era of medicine, a less technological era, an era of “hospital stays” not out-patient care.
To maintain the status quo will be to allow all of these things to go further wrong. Enough has been allowed to go wrong with health care in America. Pratt County residents should not allow it to happen here, not when so many jobs and so much of the economy relies on PRMC.
No, it’s not the best of times to raise taxes, but it’s not the worst of times either. In truth, there will be no better time. Here’s why.
First, because there is no best time to raise taxes. Try to imagine it.
Second, because as Rich Sanders of the Pratt County Hospital Board has so often pointed out, interest rates are teetering at the low end of the scale and unlikely to go lower. Higher is more likely. Taxpayers can pay less now or pay more later.
Third, because construction costs are also low. Again, less now, more later.
There will be no better time to raise taxes, secure the future of the county’s largest employer and ensure that PRMC will continue play its very substantial part in maintaining Pratt as a regional trade center.
And because Pratt is a regional trade center, however small, there is no fairer way to raise taxes than a 1 cent sales tax. Everyone who uses the services of the hospital will help pay for the new facility. They will pay when they shop here and when they stop overnight. The Pratt County Hospital Board and the PRMC Board of Directors made a smart choice there.
The two boards made a smart choice too when they decided to build a new addition and tear down the older parts of the campus.
Renovation and remodeling sound wiser and cheaper. They are not in this case, a very specific case of turning something obsolete into something modern.
Since the industrial revolution, health care has been technologically driven. Remodeling and upgrading PRMC within its existing walls could be likened to upgrading a conventional submarine to a nuclear powered vessel — while it’s in operation.
The existing walls at PRMC will not accept everything the upgrade needs, and the upgrade will have to take place while the hospital is in operation. When the systems are integrated throughout and not compartmentalized, the task becomes almost impossible.
Lastly, there is no more generous way to raise taxes. PRMC only leases the hospital. The county owns the building. What renter would pay half the cost of a new a structure? Imagine if taxpayers had to bear it all.
Pratt County voters should vote yes for health care April 6.
The Tribune
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It’s not the best of times to raise taxes — even if it’s for the best of reasons.
And a major addition to Pratt Regional Medical Center is the best of reasons given that its core structures and core systems are rapidly aging and at risk of failure, possibly tomorrow. Those same structures and systems are obsolete. They were designed for another era of medicine, a less technological era, an era of “hospital stays” not out-patient care.
To maintain the status quo will be to allow all of these things to go further wrong. Enough has been allowed to go wrong with health care in America. Pratt County residents should not allow it to happen here, not when so many jobs and so much of the economy relies on PRMC.
No, it’s not the best of times to raise taxes, but it’s not the worst of times either. In truth, there will be no better time. Here’s why.
First, because there is no best time to raise taxes. Try to imagine it.
Second, because as Rich Sanders of the Pratt County Hospital Board has so often pointed out, interest rates are teetering at the low end of the scale and unlikely to go lower. Higher is more likely. Taxpayers can pay less now or pay more later.
Third, because construction costs are also low. Again, less now, more later.
There will be no better time to raise taxes, secure the future of the county’s largest employer and ensure that PRMC will continue play its very substantial part in maintaining Pratt as a regional trade center.
And because Pratt is a regional trade center, however small, there is no fairer way to raise taxes than a 1 cent sales tax. Everyone who uses the services of the hospital will help pay for the new facility. They will pay when they shop here and when they stop overnight. The Pratt County Hospital Board and the PRMC Board of Directors made a smart choice there.
The two boards made a smart choice too when they decided to build a new addition and tear down the older parts of the campus.
Renovation and remodeling sound wiser and cheaper. They are not in this case, a very specific case of turning something obsolete into something modern.
Since the industrial revolution, health care has been technologically driven. Remodeling and upgrading PRMC within its existing walls could be likened to upgrading a conventional submarine to a nuclear powered vessel — while it’s in operation.
The existing walls at PRMC will not accept everything the upgrade needs, and the upgrade will have to take place while the hospital is in operation. When the systems are integrated throughout and not compartmentalized, the task becomes almost impossible.
Lastly, there is no more generous way to raise taxes. PRMC only leases the hospital. The county owns the building. What renter would pay half the cost of a new a structure? Imagine if taxpayers had to bear it all.
Pratt County voters should vote yes for health care April 6.
The Tribune
