Ector County Commissioners continue to research how best to serve the community with the money they received from the American Rescue Plan Act. The county was awarded a total of $32 million dollars while the City received about $20 million each receiving half this year and the other half next year. Last month eight different groups made pleas for part of the money.
A South Ector County Volunteer Fire Department representative asked for $350,000. She stated that the community had outgrown their department, which is more than 40 years old with aging electrical, plumbing and septic while Ector County Utilities District would like to see the money spent to finish plumbing water to West Odessa and bringing it to South Odessa. Medical Center Hospital asked for $7 million dollars for equipment and staff while Odessa Regional requested $2.6 million.
Ector County Commissioners have decided to hire a company that would be responsible for accepting and vetting applications for the money and recommending applicants for commissioners to choose from. The selected company would also conduct financial audits to make sure the money is used correctly.
The City of Odessa recently allotted Medical Center Hospital $3 million dollars and Odessa Regional Hospital $1 million dollars from their American Rescue Act Funds. Some City Council Members have expressed concerns that the county did not quickly hand their money over and stated that the county has done very little to help the hospitals during the covid pandemic. Councilman Thompson recently accused the county of sitting on the sidelines for the past two years. To that Judge Hays says, “How much money do they need?” She noted that both hospitals had served as hero’s during this pandemic but have received millions of dollars in federal funding and stated that she believed they would be getting more money before the end of the year.
Unfortunately, in 1990 the morons on the Commissioners Court voted to give 100% of the counties sales tax revenue to Medical Center Hospital leaving the county with a big fat zero. According to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts since 1991 Medical Center Hospital has received a whopping $658,904,756.88 in county sales tax revenue. That is $658 million dollars! Steve Thompson, I wouldn’t call that sitting on the sidelines. The county has been helping them out for the last 30 years at the expense of some folks not having running water. I would imagine West Odessa would look a lot like North East Odessa if the County had not lost their sales tax revenue in 1991. How much more do the people that live in the County have to sacrifice in order to bail out our county hospital?
I took a few days to do more digging and I stand corrected on a few things in the above article, which is in its original form. Let me first state that nowhere in this article will you find where I said the hospital stole or misused monies as Federico of the Odessa American has accused and this is not a misinformation campaign aimed at discrediting the hospital as Councilman Thompson has claimed.
I have been told by county officials for many years that the county commissioners gave the counties tax revenue to Medical Center Hospital. There seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding this issue. It turns out that this is true and untrue at the same time. In 1990 commissioners unanimously agreed not to seek the sales tax but instead to support the hospitals bid for it because property taxes alone did not generate enough revenue to keep the hospital afloat. The issue was taken to the voters and passed in 1990. Sales tax revenue that the county could have potentially collected was given to the hospital, which had been removed from the counties budget.
While the city has benefited from sales tax revenue for as long as I can remember, the county did not collect their first check until April of 2019 after voters approved a county sales tax increase in late 2018.
While I do not know who the beneficiaries of the American Rescues Plan Act Funding will be, I know that every entity asking for money believes their cause to be as important and deserving as the next. I may or may not agree with the end results but I respect the right of the Commissioners Court to make this decision.