6/30/2009 1:45:00 PM Health center is saved Area Voters approve hospital tax
Patrick Whitehurst/WGCN
Pictured from left to right are Williams Banner Health Care Center employees Kayla Bailey, Christine Porr, Crystal Gonzales, Martha Verser, Cindy Christman, Nancy Watson, Nell Brown, Mary Case, Mary Hernandez, Shelby Reid and Bridget Gleeson.
WILLIAMS - Health care experts are celebrating in Williams, thanks to overwhelming voter support for their services. Voters came out in favor of the Williams Banner Health Care Center following a June 23 special election, with 81 percent voting in favor of the tax. Unofficial election results showed a total of 1,374 voters coming out in support of the health care center, with 256 voting against the tax. Roughly 43 percent of all registered voters turned in ballots for the June 23 election, according to estimates.
Williams Health Care Center Manager Cindy Christman said hospital officials were delighted by the election results.
"That was a huge vote of confidence from our community," Christman said. "We feel very honored and humbled at the same time that people are obviously happy with the way things are going here and the way we care for people."
With the election over, Christman said regular services will continue to be offered at the facility.
"It is an authorization for another five years," she said. "This was an exception, so we'll be on the regular cycle again for a November election in four years. In November of 2013 we will need to have another election to approve the continuation of the tax."
While voters supported the hospital tax during the recent election, the road to the election was a bumpy one. In order to put the question to taxpayers, hospital officials had to first clear a number of hurdles, which included approval from the Arizona House of Representatives and Senate. While hospital officials in Williams waited for their approval, which did eventually come, the deadline for the election loomed closer and closer.
"I always hoped it would go through, but I didn't want to be overconfident," Christman said. "I was just really happy that local people were able to make a decision about it. That's what I was really happy about, that they got the opportunity to voice their opinion on local health care. I'm really happy about that."
Hospital officials originally hoped to hold the election in May of this year, but new legislation prevented them from holding one.
No one knew of the legislative change, however, until attorneys for the Health Care Center prepared for the election. In order to continue services uninterrupted, hospital officials were forced to seek approval for a special election. The request passed quickly in the House of Representatives, but stalled out in the Senate. Without the Senate's approval to hold a special election, hospital officials faced cutting many of the programs offered at the Health Care Center for roughly one year, until a regularly scheduled election could be held. Health care officials, meanwhile, prepared for the election prior to the Senate approval in the hopes that a decision would be made. In a landmark decision, officials with the Senate passed the bill in late May, one of the only non-budget bills to be passed during tough budget negotiations. Gov. Jan Brewer signed the bill following the Senate approval.
Besides strong support from members of the Williams community, Christman said Senator Steve Pierce, as well as Representatives Andy Toby and Lucy Mason, played an important role in getting state approval for the special election.
