Federal Government | elpasospeak

Find a way to get someone else to pay

November 14, 2015

The voters in Texas just approved a $10,000 increase in the homestead exemption.

Homeowners will see their property taxes go down until the school districts can react and raise their tax rates. They will either need to cut spending or raise their rates. Much of what the districts spend money on is mandated by feral and state rules.

The long term effect of the increase in the homestead exemption will be to shift more of the tax burden away from homeowners to people who rent their living quarters. Apartments and rental houses do not qualify for the homestead exemption.

We already exempt homeowners over the age of 64 from increases in their school taxes. Now the young people in our community who don’t have the resources or are just not ready to buy a house will end up paying more of the costs to operate our schools.

Senior citizens tend to vote more regularly than younger ones do. With their school district taxes frozen they are in a situation where voting for a tax increase costs them nothing.

We deserve better

Brutus

9 Comments | El Paso Independent School District, Federal Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Potential forum

October 18, 2015

This came in from Xavier Miranda:

To be honest with you, many of us are fed up with our elected officials and their impunity, without fear of being held accountable. The time to usurp their power is now. Reading about the approval of the events center in the downtown area is just another boondoggle, with Leeser catering to the money people.

Consideration is being given to organizing a citizens’ forum, wherein these elected officials answer to the public. I had organized a forum at Mujer Obrera a couple of years ago when the Texas State delegation was grilled about education and the budget. Of course, Margo dismissed the invitation, but Marquez, Moody, and Rodriguez showed—but their charm disarmed many of the folks in attendance.

Having spoken to former federal agents, the prospect of even investigating corruption in our city is quite slim. There is ineptitude at the local office, as well as ties to the very officials they are supposed to keep in line.

Just brainstorming here, but with the local bloggers’ help, we can host a forum, with city and county officials at a central venue, have courageous moderators, and an interactive format that would address our concerns. Given the political season, we can have a significant citizen turnout, and reclaim representation. The EPISO accountability sessions are typically well attended, but do not engage the average citizen; the same can be Border Interfaith events.

Just a rant on systemic corruption in our city.

Regards,

Xavier Miranda

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9 Comments | City government, County Government, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Two ways out

September 26, 2015

One of our loyal readers has been encouraging us to write about this:

One of the stories that the people responsible for getting us into the mess with the children’s hospital are telling is that the government reimbursement rates changed after they did their planning.

Any and everyone in the hospital business should have seen this coming. Hospital costs had been spiraling out of control for years and in the 2007 time frame the talk of the industry was about how much the hospitals were going to be cut.

Even more damning is the fact that the government is in the habit of telling us about their proposed changes months in advance of making them.

Here are just a few examples of those notifications:

The Thursday, November 1, 2007 testimony of the director of CMS before congress.

An industry warning dated July 1, 2007:

Start preparing for October when reimbursement rules change

Another industry warning dated July 12, 2007:

Reimbursement Changes on the Horizon

Two choices

The people who did this to us can only have one of two possible responses. They might say “We didn’t know” but they should have. The might say “We chose not to tell you” which is probably closer to the truth.

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | County Government, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Is the jig up?

September 2, 2015

The Times published an article about the ongoing troubles between our county hospital and the children’s hospital yesterday.

It looks like there may be a new party at the table now. According to the article our county hospital and the children’s hospital colluded to get federal money that they should not have received.

The article quoted a former lawyer for the children’s hospital:

She said that as a governmental entity, UMC could put up money for federal health grants known as intergovernmental transfers. For each dollar UMC put up, the feds put up $1.40, Vogel said. The idea was to use Children’s Hospital’s rent payment for the local match, but federal rules prohibit such an explicit quid pro quo, so the deal wasn’t put in writing, Vogel said.

Liars, cheaters, thieves?

According to the article the children’s hospital recently made claims in front of a federal bankruptcy judge that any rent money that have paid in the past was actually used to scam a federal matching fund program.

We will have to wait to see if the feds take legal action. We should probably expect them to demand a return of the money.

Will we see this prosecuted as a criminal case?

Can we believe anything that either side says at this point?

We deserve better

Brutus

8 Comments | County Government, El Paso Times, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Paying serious lip service

August 11, 2015

This is another example of the double-talk that is coming out of our county hospital. On April 15, 2015 they issued this announcement:

Then on July 9, 2015 the joint commission issued it’s preliminary denial of accreditation decision. The commission explains a preliminary denial as:

Preliminary Denial of Accreditation results when there is justification to deny accreditation to a health care organization due to one or more of the following: an immediate threat to health or safety for patients or the public; failure to resolve the requirements of an Accreditation with Follow-up Survey status after two opportunities to do so; failure to resolve the requirements of a Contingent Accreditation status; or significant noncompliance with Joint Commission standards. This decision is subject to review and appeal before the determination to deny accreditation.

On January 2, 2015 we wrote No cures today, an article about the hospital’s response to having been given the worst scores possible in the three rating areas that Medicare used to grade the hospital. The result seemed to indicate that we would suffer the loss of about $350,000 in payments.

Timeline

January 2, 2015 we write about the hospitals reaction to being condemned by Medicare. The hospital’s failures are endangering patients and costing the taxpayers money.

April 15, 2015 the hospital issues a press release letting us know how proud the board is with their compliance report and compliance plans. Our hospital administrator tells us that “our program operations are always exceeding standards”.

July 9, 2015, less than three months after their hollow assurances, the hospital is threatened with denial of accreditation for some of the same things that they were penalized for in January and told us they were taking seriously in April.

I can’t write a date for when our county commissioner’s took action to clean up this mess because they haven’t.

We deserve better

Brutus

4 Comments | County Government, El Paso Times, Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

elpasospeak

Find a way to get someone else to pay

Potential forum