A lot of work lies ahead for JPS bond vote

Tarrant County Administrator G.K. Maenius says he’ll “probably recommend” on Tuesday that county commissioners drop the idea of an $809 million bond election in November for improvements at John Peter Smith Hospital.

Better to wait, Maenius said, and hold the election in November 2016, when the proposals currently in the bond package and perhaps others “have been properly vetted.”

Just so everybody reads it correctly, that’s an admission of defeat. You don’t come this far in preparations for a bond election that approaches a billion dollars in taxpayer money and then wave off — not unless you have real doubts about whether things will go well at the polls.

It’s far better to stop now than to run willy-nilly into a train wreck in three months’ time. Maenius and others can’t be faulted for putting on the brakes.

But it does mean there are real obstacles to overcome.

Primary among those problems is that town hall meetings on the proposal met with an outpouring of protest from Tea Party groups and others opposed to the debt and worried about hospital financial projections.

Delaying the election a full year indicates the seriousness of that opposition. It’s perhaps also a calculation on the part of county and hospital officials that, with few other ballot items to draw people to the polls this year, there’s a big risk that only opponents would show up.

Next November, with a presidential election, more people who are not philosophically opposed to debt might vote.

JPS President Robert Earley said the “critical” elements of the proposal, including a 10-story patient tower, a five-story psychiatric hospital and renovations to the current hospital, would still be on the list next year.

County and JPS officials will also be looking at potential needs for improvements at JPS clinics and changes that might be needed at the main hospital to accommodate a new Texas Christian University-University of North Texas Health Science Center medical school.

But unless those needs can also be labeled “critical,” they would increase costs and thus make the bond package harder to pass.

No doubt the commissioners already see the need for delay, as well as the hard work ahead.

This story was originally published August 7, 2015 at 7:26 PM with the headline "A lot of work lies ahead for JPS bond vote."