Today they took the story on Rep. Ed Soliday's proposed bill in the Indiana legislature, removed all salient and important details, and basically castigated Rep. Soliday for attempting to take the power away from the local community. Here's the what I understand:
- We don't really have $160 million, due to clauses in the sale contract that were poorly conceived, we have long term potential liability for lawsuits, potentially frivolous medical types, from former patients. This amount could drop quite a bit if attorneys just do a little ambulance chasing and find some candidates to dig into that pot of gold.
- The County Council voted to self-handcuff themselves with a rule that the principal can't be touched unless a super-majority supports it. Of course a regular majority could vote to set aside that same self-appointed rule and then tap into the principal or change of their own internal rules.
- Rep. Soliday's proposed legislation would formalize what everyone appears to have agreed, namely that the principal would be left alone, that interest could not be used to balance the operating budget, and that there should be citizen input into the use of the earnings. That is what a foundation does, they use the earnings only for public good, and keep the principal intact.
- The issue at hand is not someone reaching into the cookie jar, it is providing a framework for formalizing this agreement into a county council controlled foundation, and looking ahead to the day that we eliminate commissioners and let the elected county executive appoint the citizens board for a check and balance.
- Lastly, when the hospital was sold, there were some fuzzy details and the contract was missing strong enough language to protect us and to determine the exact manner of managing the money ... this legislation can clear that all up.
Now, I may have missed some key points, feel free to add in the comments. But, it's getting a little old having a pretty simple issue politicized to the point that it loses any memory of the truth.
