A citizens committee in Nevada recommends a sales tax increase to protect their hospital.
The group “Citizens United to Strengthen Our Hospital” is recommending the city council place a half cent sales tax on the ballot to help support the city owned Nevada Regional Medical Center. Committee members say the hospital faces $1.5 million in bond servicing every year for the next twelve years, and that the proposed sales tax is estimated to cover about half of that. They say debt is one of the biggest challenges facing rural hospitals, and that a sales tax is one of the most fair ways the city can support NRMC.
“Whether you live here, you work here, you’re traveling through on I-49 or whatever it may be, you’re going to assist with this when you purchase all kinds of things here,” says Dr. Warren Lovinger with Citizens United to Strengthen Our Hospital.
If city council approves, the sales tax question would appear on the August ballot.
