MIDLAND, Texas — Midland Memorial Hospital has rescheduled their previously announced sales tax election to July 14 from its original May 2 date.
The election will ask for a 0.25%, or a quarter of one cent, increase on sales tax in Midland County, which would help replace an expected loss in federal funding due to Medicaid cuts coming in fall 2020.
The funding losses are expected to reach around 35 million dollars per year by 2024. If passed, this sales tax bump would cover close to 28 million dollars per year of those losses.
The vote was initially postponed on March 25 after Governor Abbott pushed back all state elections to this year's November 3 election date due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The hospital filed a petition to the governor's office asking for the election to be held earlier, as each quarter of a year that passes without the sales tax increase could potentially cost the hospital 7 million dollars in lost tax collections.
Midland Memorial Hospital CEO Russell Meyers stated that holding the election in November as the Governor originally called for could have removed half of the potential sales tax collections for the year.
The loss of revenue would cause the hospital to lose a number of services that it currently provides, including support for local clinics that are part of the Midland Health system as well as indigent care.
Early voting on this potential sales tax increase and other runoff elections will take place from July 6-10.
Meyers gave details on Monday during the Midland Health COVID-19 update livestream, his remarks on the sales tax election begin at around four minutes and 36 seconds into the video below.