We are living under hard times. The Rio Grande Valley is one of the poorest regions in the whole country. But we pay one of the highest tax rates in Texas. Two years ago, in 2014, state Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, with a PAC set up by the Doctors Hospital at Renaissance in Edinburg, Texas, introduced legislation called Proposition 1. It called for a hospital health district in the valley. The legislation also would have set up a medical school funded by the state and the University of Texas at Austin.
The PAC had the blessing of our Hidalgo County commissioners. Thousands of dollars were invested in the hope that the hospital district would pass. To their surprise, county voters defeated the proposition because different kinds of groups and individuals came together to ensure that their voices were heard.
Unfortunately, the same people who were pushing for the hospital district are back in 2016 insisting that they get what they want, not respecting the will of the majority.
This time, these so-called leaders have enlisted the help of the rector of the San Juan Catholic Church and community-based organizations such as La Union del Pueblo Entero (L.U.P.E.) and veterans’ organizations, along with the business community, in an effort to convince the voters of Hidalgo County to approve the hospital district.
(Veterans were promised their own hospital. Now they want to give them second-hand medical services from inexperienced new doctors)
Why are people opposing Proposition 1? While the tax rate has been lowered, the fact is that our taxes will be raised and the whole content of the proposition is not being explained. A Hidalgo County judge says that the commissioner’s court has not raised our taxes in 14 years. The truth is that the appraisal district reappraises our properties and raises our taxes yearly.
We are taxpayers who are on fixed incomes; we are retired disabled people working two jobs in order to survive. If we have insurance, our co-pay is too high. Workers’ properties are daily being auctioned on the county’s doorstep because their homes have been seized due to their being unable to pay the taxes on their properties.
We the people of Hidalgo County cannot afford a single penny of additional taxes. Some of us have gone to war for this country. Some of us have worked all our lives to get the little that we have. What we need is medical health care be nationalized. The government has the responsibility to ensure that its people have medical treatment at government cost.
