Shelby County, TN, Mayor Lee Harris wants to build a new, state-of-the-art Regional One Health hospital in the Medical District of Memphis. The mayor’s ambitious plan would create a flagship public hospital that would partner with the University of Tennessee, similar to how Vanderbilt University Medical Center partners with Vanderbilt University in Nashville. But it’s going to cost taxpayers, reports NBC affiliate WMC.
Mayor Harris’ team has to sell the Shelby County Commission on a funding plan, and it’s going to be a hard sell. Part of the plan includes the possibility of increasing the wheel tax, which was originally created as a “temporary” tax to generate revenue. But everyone who owns a car in Memphis and Shelby County has been paying the wheel tax since 1987.
To replace the aging ROH, Mayor Harris’ administration says it will cost $750 million.
“We believe Regional One Health should be one campus,” Shelby County Chief Administrative Officer Harold Collins told county commissioners during a committee meeting on Wednesday. “It is a community hospital. It’s West Tennessee’s only Level 1 trauma center. That means people who are shot or are in major traffic accidents or catastrophes, this is the place they will go in a 200-mile radius.”
Harris’ team said $350 million would come from local funding. Proposed ways to generate that money include hiking fees, raising property taxes, or doubling the wheel tax from $50 to $100.
The wheel tax was created in the late 1980′s as a one-time only tax to pay down county debt. 40 years later, Shelby Countians still pay the tax every time they renew their car tags.
The Harris plan also calls for an influx of money from the state of Tennessee. Read more.
