March 3, 2011 - Tavares, FL - Yesterday, reporter Berndt Petersen's TV report on the North Lake County Hospital District was aired. He included interviews from this author, Vance Jochim, and Marilyn Bainter. (Note: The link to an online video is not available yet - when it is, I will publish it HERE, or a link to my recording of the video).
Currently, the North Lake County Hospital District collects a fixed one mill rate tax on property, which generates about $10-million) and gives it to three local hospitals - Waterman (45%), Leesburg (45%) and a 10% share to
You can find more of an overview on the District at:
http://northlakecountyhospitaldistrict.com/
and at
http://webworks.typepad.com/lakecountyfiscalrangers/north-lake-county-hospital-district/
The TV report was fairly short, and basically gave two sides to the story, but no real barn busting conclusion supporting reform of the District. Berndt did mention his estimate of $100-million going to the hospitals over the years, and the concern of Marilyn and myself that there were NO RULES on how the funds were spent. He left out my comment that the Hospitals could be spending their approximately $5-million per year in tax revenue on pink flamingos for the lawns, and there were no restrictions to prevent that. That is why we are trying to force a revision of the law to clearly define spending rules, methods of accounting to ensure ability to trace HOW the funds are used, and to require a new referendum for voters to approve or disapprove the tougher legislation requirements to protect taxpayer interests.
The report does mention Marilyn's lawsuit against the District challenging the Florida Constitutionality of the District, and Berndt did an earlier report HERE on that subject.
As of today, Thursday, there is no link yet on the website to the article, but I did tape it, and will post it HERE this weekend.
vj
