OCR Text |
Show it had to come - Incorporated in the approval of a 1970 opsrafng budget for the Allen Memorial Hospital this week was the anticipated anticipat-ed raising of room rates as of January 1, to provide more operating revenues, and to forestall the necessity of raising . property taxes to further support the County hospital. As pointed out by Commission Chairman Ralph J. Miller, Sr., in the budget hearing Tuesday, the increased room rates, at the current occupancy levels, will bring in the equivalent of over three mills, when comparing that method of operating the medical facility to simply utilizing tax moneis for the same purpose, as has been suggested by some. Increasing the room rates at the local hospital may :n certain cases create some hardships. There is little questioning question-ing the fact, however, that the Nov. 33 property tax deadline also creates some hardslrps for quite a number of property taxpayers each year. One has only to compare our present rate structure here with those elsewhere in the State, to see that our rates are quite low by comparison. An increase in room rates had to come. And despite some words to the contrary, we feel that this is the method that should be used to fill the operating cost vs. revenue gap. Our hospital is a facility of which we can be quite proud. A continually cramped budget, however, due in part to low occupancy rates, has not allowed improvements to be made ore a systematic basis during the twelve years of its life. If raising our rates to comparable levels with other communities will give the hospital the revenue it needs to ' operate properly, then the Commission's approval of the budget provision Tuesday was justified. |