A surprise tragedy of the recent General Assembly – one of many such tragedies, we should note – was the failure of the trauma care network funding bill in the waning hours of the session on Friday night. Insiders tell us that, despite his public support for the network, most of the blame can be laid at the feet of the Speaker.
The loss of the bill is especially grievous when you consider that Grady Hospital’s future hangs in the balance. The Grady board was prompted to hand over much of its power to a new governing body on the promise that the ailing hospital would receive support from a state-funded trauma network. Grady held up its end of the bargain, but the state welshed on the deal.
In fairness, the state will provide a $58 million cash infusion to the network from the supplemental budget. But that’s a one-time hand-out. Without a permanent revenue source, the network is going to have trouble attracting a decent director and staff.
In previous years, lawmakers had looked at a rental car surcharge, a cell phone tax and, this year, a $10 fee on car registrations as possible funding sources. But, late in the session, somebody hatched the brilliant idea of using revenue from the state’s .25-mill property tax to pay for the trauma network. Gov. Sonny Perdue made waves at the start of the session by calling for the repeal of the state property tax, but by late last week, it was apparent that the Governor’s proposal was a no-go.
Supposedly, the property tax would’ve generated about $95 million a year to help support trauma care in Georgia – more than any of the other proposed funding schemes. The House/Senate conference committee that dealt with the trauma care bill had a few more details to negotiate before settling on a final version of the bill, but members say everyone was on board with the revenue idea.
When the Senate conferees showed the bill to Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, we’re told he praised it as one of the more significant achievements of the session. On the House side, however, Speaker Glenn Richardson stomped that sucker flat, telling his folks to end negotiations.
Now, why would the Speaker have done such a thing – especially since he was one of the biggest promoters of a state trauma network? His office didn’t return my calls. But he had threatened repeatedly from the well throughout the last day to stifle other legislation unless he saw movement on his tax bill.
As one lawmaker explained it: “The conventional wisdom at the Capitol was that Richardson held everything up because his tax bill didn’t pass the Senate.”
What’s the cost of failing to establish a trauma network? Well, look at it this way: The fatality rate from traumatic injury is 10 percent higher in Georgia than the national average. That comes down to about 700 deaths a year that could have been prevented with adequate trauma care.
Until the trauma network is fully funded, that’s a high price to pay to satisfy one man’s ego.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
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