Colleague Commentary

  My colleague, Larredondo, recently published a commentary on health care in Texas.  She addressed her classmates and fellow Austinites urging that our city and state are in need of better suited medical care.  She then presented the case for Travis County Central Health Proposition 1 as a solution to this problem.  With her experience in the health care industry as a nurse she spoke of current overcrowding in our ER's and the statistic that ranks Texas last in the country for quality of health care.  She supported her argument by stating that a resulting new medical center from Prop 1 would help to relieve congestion and financial burden on ER's by giving the public an alternate and more appropriate setting for certain treatments and necessary medical care.
   While I agree with Larredondo's stance on health care reform and the funding of a new medical center in our state, I do not support this particular proposition as it would increase citizen's property taxes an additional 5 cents per every $100 of property value.  I do not believe select tax payer's should be responsible for funding services given to the entire population of the county.  I am definitely biased because I am currently in the process of buying my own house and with property taxes already so high, this is something I cannot support morally or financially.  Many of us are struggling to achieve our own pursuits and I believe that something as important as health care should be exclusively funded by local, state and federal government's current revenue or an alternate source of income that does not increase taxes on a select few who are trying to build a life for themselves in the city they love.