2023年9月27日
奥斯汀-今天(9月9日星期二. 26) the Travis County Commissioners Court voted to approve the fiscal 2024 proposed budget for 澳门真人赌场官方网站, 特拉维斯县的医院区. The commissioners also set 澳门真人赌场官方网站’s 2024 property tax rate at 10.每100美元估值07美分. For the county’s average assessed home value, that’s a tax increase of about $56 a year.
在税率问题上，最高法院以4比1的投票结果批准了这一提议. 县法官安迪·布朗(Andy Brown). 1 .专员杰夫·特拉维利安，Pct. 2 .布里吉德·谢伊局长和警察局长. 3 Commissioner Ann Howard all voted in favor; Pct. 专员Margaret J Gómez投了反对票. On the budget itself, Shea abstained and Gómez again voted no.
This budget will allow 澳门真人赌场官方网站 to commence Year 1 of its 健康care Equity Implementation Plan, 7年, $680 million initiative to repair Travis County’s healthcare safety net for residents with low income. 澳门真人赌场官方网站管理委员会, which first approved the FY 24 proposed budget on September 6, 于九月修订. 25 to add $2 million in funding for inmate healthcare in Travis County’s jails, 应专员法院的要求, 还有500美元,000 in funding to support clinical services at 黑人健康诊所.
Support for 澳门真人赌场官方网站 at the Commissioners Court hearing came from representatives of Peoples’ Community Clinic, 整体护理, 黑人健康诊所, 中央长老会, 奥斯汀音乐家健康联盟, 饥饿山基金会, 以及特拉维斯县反贫困项目, 在其他社区组织和倡导者中. “I appreciate the strategic effort 澳门真人赌场官方网站 has put into serving lower-income individuals and families, 包括音乐家,” said HAAM CEO Paul Scott; 澳门真人赌场官方网站 provides subsidized health insurance to HAAM members through its subsidiary Sendero健康计划.
“Our partnerships with Black Men’s 健康 Clinic and 澳门真人赌场官方网站 have become creative efforts to get unhoused individuals into healthcare services, offering these individuals resources so they can start living healthy lives,” said Hungry Hill Foundation executive director Chase Wright, whose group works with the community of nearly 200 African-American adults living unhoused in parks near 12th Street and Springdale Road. 澳门真人赌场官方网站 outreach workers work with unhoused clients of Hungry Hill, Central Presbyterian and other agencies to enroll them in the Medical Access Program and get connected with the healthcare they need.
Several members of the 董事会 also addressed commissioners during public testimony, advocating that the Commissioners Court stay the course and support the continued implementation of the 医疗公平计划 as developed and without delay. “What 澳门真人赌场官方网站 is doing is literally building the care system that people need,经理阿米特·莫特瓦尼在法庭上说. “We cannot afford to stop building and providing the best healthcare possible.”
“Picture a community potluck where everybody’s brought their best dishes, 但当你坐下来吃饭的时候, 结果没有人带盘子、叉子或勺子,董事会财务主管Maram Museitif说. “That’s what our healthcare system is often like; there’s excellent care being provided but there’s no strategic planning. We have painstakingly crafted this budget to respond to people’s real needs.”
“We now have one of the few opportunities we’ve ever had to make our healthcare more inclusive and comprehensive,董事局副主席李志强博士说. 辛西娅Brinson. “我们有新的诊所上线, we have our specialty clinic coming online before the end of the year. We are actually performing a lot of the services our patients are asking for, 但它们需要时间才能开花结果.”
Said Manager Shannon Jones, “Right now we have plans to reduce healthcare disparities. And there are lots of elements in those plans that will be coming forward in the next two years. These efforts are beginning to take place and we need to focus on the future. In order to be successful to address these disparities, we need to have funding.”
Dr. 查尔斯贝尔, 董事会主席, told commissioners during 澳门真人赌场官方网站’s budget presentation, “We all strongly believe that the health of our community is of utmost importance, regardless of whether an individual can afford health care.“回到2018年。, 贝尔指出, “This court requested that we stop haphazardly funding requests and create a strategic plan for healthcare delivery. 我们认真对待了这一要求. 这个计划建立了一个公平的, 有效的, and efficient healthcare system under 澳门真人赌场官方网站’s control [to] high-quality health care to lower-income residents of Travis County.”
澳门真人赌场官方网站 President and CEO Mike Geeslin thanked the court for their collaboration, “This is a community-wide effort that 澳门真人赌场官方网站 can’t do alone. 我们对法院深表感激, 社区倡导者和合作伙伴, but mostly the people we are honored and privileged to serve.”