Gross-receipts tax impacts Trigg, Logan clinic

The administrator at Tucumcari’s hospital said the facility would be forced to cut expenses — including possibly jobs and medical services — if Quay County voters in November reject a renewal of the gross-receipt tax for the hospital.

The current one-eighth percent tax raises about $200,000 a year to help operate Dan C. Trigg Memorial Hospital. Quay County commissioners in late August voted to put the tax-renewal measure on the Nov. 6 general-election ballot.

The tax first was approved during a special election in 1987. A new state law requires the consolidation of most local elections into general elections, so the hospital tax must be decided again amid other general-election races in November.

Like other area officials who recently have urged the tax renewal’s passage, Trigg Hospital Chief Executive Dick Smith on Thursday stressed “it’s not a new tax.”

Smith said the $200,000 from the tax doesn’t seem like much for an annual expense budget of about $15 million. But he said that amount has “very effectively” supported the hospital amid a “very, very thin” budget.

Smith said if county voters reject the tax renewal, it would have repercussions on Trigg Hospital, which is operated by Albuquerque-based Presbyterian Health Services.

“We’d have to look at services, every expense we have, because the budget is very, very thin,” he said. “We budget for a break-even at that facility. Somewhere, we would have to make that (shortfall) up.”

When asked whether such cutbacks would include layoffs, Smith said “those are one of the things you don’t like to think about,” but he acknowledged that possibility.

He said Trigg Hospital employs 89 people and is the second-biggest employer in Quay County.

Smith said the tax benefits the hospital’s primary-care clinic in Logan, as well.

If the tax vote fails, any cutbacks would affect vital medical services, he said. Like many rural hospitals, Trigg over the years has seen several of its services discontinued or consolidated to bigger-population centers in Albuquerque, Amarillo, Lubbock or Clovis. What remains in Tucumcari includes an emergency room, a primary-care clinic, radiology, a laboratory, outpatient behavioral health programs for senior adults and hospice care.

“It’s important we look at health-care investment in our communities, because it’s getting harder and harder,” Smith added. “Reimbursements are going down; expenses are going up.”

District 1 county commissioner Sue Dowell, who’s lived in Quay County much of her life, said residents historically have supported the hospital tax “wholeheartedly.”

“People realized how vital it is to the county,” she said.

Compared to special elections, Dowell said general elections tend to bring out more voters resistant to tax votes.

Adding to the complication is the November ballot contains seven questions, including six from the state, according to Quay County chief deputy clerk Veronica Marez.

“My concern is it’s important we communicate to more people what this question is and what they’re voting on is to support the hospital,” Dowell said.

Smith said he was optimistic the tax measure would pass in November.

“My sense is that (the tax renewal) is pretty positive,” he said. “People understand the cost benefit of this.”

Smith said local support for the tax is boosted by the fact a “substantial” amount of it comes from revenue generated by tourists.

“You see a lot of out-of-state plates at our hotels and restaurants,” he said.