Judge Candidates Tackle Questions on Hospital, County Financial Health

The Fayette County Republican Party hosted the first of four candidate forums for the March primary at Ellinger Community Center on Sunday, Jan. 18.

Four of the candidates for County Judge participated in the forum: Josh Homan, Josh Vandever, Michael Zweschper and William Bernsen. The fifth candidate, Craig Moreau, did not attend. Read more about that in the story to the left.

Republican party organizers prepared several questions in advance that each candidate in attendance answered. Candidates also fielded a few questions from the audience. About 110 people were in attendance. The three candidates for Pct. 2 Commissioner were also part of the forum. Read more about what the commissioner candidates had to say in Tuesday’s issue of the Record.

The Record livestreamed the entire forum on Facebook, and the video is also available on YouTube at https://youtu. be/FzLAPkxRRzw.

One of the questions asked the County Judge candidates about their position concerning County reserve funds. The Government Finance Officers Association recommends no less than two months worth of unrestricted fund balance. In other words, the County should maintain enough “reserve” funds to cover at least two months worth of expenses. Outside auditors often recommend three months worth of expenses. Others recommend six months worth of funds. Fayette County’s reserves have often fallen below those recommendations. Here’s how each candidate responded to the question: “As far as I know, I was the first person to start talking about the reserve fund in 2023,” Bernsen said. “I had downloaded the budgets for all the neighboring counties and realized that we had a very, very low reserve fund. In fact, if you look at the history, it was under one month’s worth of reserves for nearly a decade. When I look at the numbers, according to the audited numbers, it’s only a month and a half … I’m not going to go into the questions, but how to resolve the matter – it’s very simple: you spend less than you bring in with revenue. I’m a conserveand- save businessman, not a tax-and-spend bureaucrat. This happens every year. They look at how much new money comes in and then they figure out how to spend it all. This year was a little different. This year they actually did a very good job of budgeting to save money. They actually did well. We don’t have the 2024 audit yet, so we don’t know where we stand. The situation does seem to be improving. But we’re under three months and the standard for counties is six. It takes conservatism in spending. And always raise more money than you spend on expenses. Instead of spending that money on new programs and increased spending you simply save it.”

“I don’t think there’s any need to overcomplicate this,” Homan said. “If you think about the County’s funds just like you had an emergency fund for your household, and an emergency occurred or a little overspending occurred, you’ve got to come up with a practical way to restock that emergency fund. Typically you’re not going to do it all at once or all in one year. We can talk about plans, we can talk about theories, we can talk about what political conservatives would do. That’s all great. But we have to operationalize that particular endeavor – to restock that emergency fund to, say, six months, or three months, or five months, whatever that is. So we come up with a goal. Maybe that’s replenishing the fund over a period of two or three years. I don’t know that it needs to happen all in the same year. But by doing that, it can make it hurt a little less on the areas that we have to trim. It’s important to realize that as we’re doing this, emergency funds are for emergencies. If the County should have to dip into the emergency fund because it’s something completely unforeseen, and I don’t mean overspending but a valid purpose for the emergency fund, then the County should feel OK doing that. But the question is how do we replenish that fund, because the County will need it again.”

“First, what I would say, and it’s a harsh term, but I would reject that’s the current state of things,” Vandever said. “As Mr. Bernsen said, we haven’t received our audit yet to know what it looks like. He did say it seems to be improving over the last couple of years. With the 3.5 percent cap on revenue from tax dollars from year to year as set by the Legislature, and rampant inflation that we saw because of all the response to the pandemic and the free money that was infused into the market, the cash position of the County became very stressed. We are building that back up. We do a good job of budgeting and we could do better. What I think we need to do is the County needs to have a strategic plan. Part of that strategic plan needs to be our cash balance and these big expenditures that come up. An emergency expenditure isn’t just one you didn’t plan for – that can’t be the only qualifier. So I do think we need to be more strategic in our budgeting. But I also think we overestimate our expenses and underestimate our revenues every year. That’s good, but it also tells a grim story when questions like these are asked.”

“Step one is you’ve got to make sure your current budget is balanced,” Zweschper said. “Step two is, like Mr. Homan said, you can’t do it overnight. It has to be a systematic process. So you cut a little bit from this department this year, and then the next year, so everybody doesn’t feel the burden all at once and you can plan around that. Third, I think that across our precincts there is some opportunity to bring some economies of scale. I do not think we take advantage of that with our individual precincts. I think there’s some opportunity to use some economies of scale and maybe even do some hedging with our utilities. The final thing would be accountability. I know from first-hand experience, we had a road done near our property last year. The state was managing that project. I know for a fact it cost the County a lot more than it should have because that contractor was behind, had delays, and we as a County are paying for their delays. We should never pay the state to take advantage of taxpayer funds because they couldn’t get their contractor to do their job.”

Hospital District

In 2019, as the former St. Mark’s hospital faced financial struggles, an effort to establish a hospital tax district came up for a public vote. Voters overwhelmingly rejected it with 80 percent voting against the proposition. One of the questions at the forum asked the candidates if they would support the implementation of a hospital tax district if the issue arose again.

“I would definitely support looking into it,” Zweschper said. “I’m a very deliberate person. So I think you need to do some deep dives into the cost benefit analysis. I know some other counties around us have successfully done this. However, if I were the County Judge working with the Commissioners Court, if the citizens of Fayette County choose to create a taxing district for that purpose, we would have a much bigger voice in the hospital. Not meaning that we’re going to be on their board of directors, choosing doctors and what not. But we’d definitely have a seat at the table if we’re going to help maintain the infrastructure they have. I think we can all agree the loss of the hospital in Fayette County was a major loss for the County. It goes to the quality of life. I think it’s imperative we do that. One of my goals would be to basically build strong relationships with Blinn College in Schulenburg and the hospital, so we have a seat at the table and we’re making an impact on their decisions. So I think a hospital district is something we should consider if it can benefit the County.”

“I’m not a hospital person,” Bernsen said. “I am a land person. I do not support a property tax for the hospital. There are other alternatives. One, you can have a hospital authority, which would be more government-run. I don’t necessarily advocate that either. I did have an alternative theory or idea. Really, it’s too late for it now. You know, the hospital was for sale ten cents on the dollar a few months ago. Perhaps the County should have purchased it. One of the problems with the hospital discussion was that everyone wants some say in the hospital. It’s run by a private organization and you don’t really get any. If we owned the property and leased it out to a private organization, that would have given us some element of oversight over the hospital without running the hospital itself. It’s really too late for those conversations now. All we can rely on is the new company coming in and I hope they do a fantastic job.”

“At this time my answer would be no,” Homan said. “I believe we should support the private enterprise that is working to reopen the hospital. While we don’t know what it’s going to look like fully, none of us are on the inside of Progressive Health, however, at some point the market and demand for services at the hospital have to partially support the hospital itself. That’s how business works. That’s how the market works. So we need to encourage the hospital’s success. I’d be very hesitant – I think the maximum constitutional amount is 75 cents per $100 valuation – I’d be very hesitant at this point. I do not support the creation of that entity. I do support the enterprise that’s coming in to take over the hospital and I hope it works out. I think a rural emergency hospital is the proper way to get that started, starting with emergency care and let demand-supported items – outpatient care, etc. – fill out the rest of the hospital. I think that’s the way forward.

“Few people who live in this County have spent more time over the last couple of years stressing over the hospital situation, not only from the loss of the old facility, but in the talks to reopen it under new management,” Vandever said. “Short answer - I don’t think any single politician should have the decision on whether or not we have a tax district. I would be open to the voters deciding that again. The voters spoke loud and clear the last time, and their answer was ‘no.’ Also, the hospital tax would not have saved the hospital, in my opinion. The points that have been made on this stage are completely accurate – that private enterprise needs to take this. If the hospital can’t sustain on its own merits, then we have other options outside the County. That being said, we do need to get behind the efforts to reopen the hospital. We do need to try and support it and let them earn this community’s trust. I think the best case scenario for us to get a sustainable hospital is what we’re doing right now with a for-profit private company that does rural healthcare all over the country, to open one right here in La Grange.”

The forum lasted about three hours and included far too much more information to include in this story. You can find the candidates’ full remarks in the full video on the Fayette County Record’s You-Tube channel.