Black and White? Or Green?
Atlanta, "the city too busy to hate," has found the time, when it comes to our public hospital, Grady Memorial.
The City of Atlanta straddles the border between Fulton and DeKalb (de CAB) counties. Like most big cities, we have a huge public hospital that serves most of our uninsured, poor, elderly, etc. It has one of the best trauma centers in the country.
Given those missions, it is always short of money. The shortfall is made worse by the fact that its patients come from all over Metro Atlanta and to an extent, Georgia; but, its public funding comes primarily from Fulton and DeKalb taxpayers.
The Hospital is currently undergoing its latest and most serious crisis. It is projected to run out of money sometime late in the year. To date, the crisis has been addressed by pontification by the various camps of politicians. There's a "Grady Summit" scheduled for Monday. Earlier in the year a "Task Force" appointed by Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, issued a report that among other recommendations, promoted the creation of a non-profit corporation to take over the day-to-day running of the hospital from the Grady Board.
The Board has ten members, three appointed by the DeKalb and seven appointed by the Fulton, County Commission (the disparity is historical - Fulton had a lot more people in the Forties when the Board was created). The Grady Board and the Fulton and DeKalb commissions have a majority of members who are black. The Task Force has a white majority. Ah, now you know where this is going.
Joe Beasley, regional director of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition said last week "It's about race, if we don't know it and don't deal with it, we're just whistling Dixie." Mr. Beasley is black.
Retorted A.D. Correll, white co-chairman of the Task Force, "this is about green - not black or white, it's about money. We simply have got to quit talking about political power and talk about how we're going to pay for care for people of this community. I don't give damn who's in charge."
Beasley sees the non-profit corporation proposal as a "white" power grab. He wants the Hospital bailed out; but, he wants operations to be controlled by the current black majority Board, the Board that ran the Hospital for the last seven years, losing money, resulting in the current need for an immediate $120 million bailout.
This rhetorical war also needs to be seen in the context of the last several years of Fulton County "secessions." For years there has been conflict between the northern and southern parts of Fulton County. Most of the southern population is black, with whites holding the majority in the north. Property in the north is more valuable and brings in more property taxes, the primary source of county funding, which are spent by the majority black government in the south.
North Fulton residents after years of trying, got the State Legislature to authorize referendums to form cities in the north part of the county. So far we have three new cities: Sandy Springs, Milton and John's Creek. The result is less money going to the county and less to spend in the south. Though the rhetoric about these events has died down, there were allegations of racist motivations for city creation.
So what is the motivating factor? Racism? Money? A combination of the two? "Color" is certainly involved. "Control" is a factor - if money comes from outside the two counties, should control remain with the counties? Absent the ability to control spending, should the State and/or the region throw money at the very real problem? I dunno.
3 comments:
My two cents' worth: Looks like classic coalitionalism to me. In this case, the coalitions are formed along racial lines. But could just as easily have been drawn along caste lines, or religious lines, or even along the lines of those who love baseball and those who love football.
Arbitrary formations of coalitions, and the protectionist policies designed to favor one's own coalition, will always result in emnity such as what these spokespeople are expressing on behalf of their constituencies.
Wish it could be avoided, but common sense always makes sense until one or one's coalition is the one being asked to make some form of sacrifice. Then common sense turns into something unwelcome or ugly.
North Fulton residents may wish to consider that closing or curtailing services at the public hospital could end up putting a greater strain on hospitals at that end of the county, as they could end up having to pick up more of the uninsured patients that Grady deals with.
This does sound like it's as much a fight about administration as it is about money. The black caucus likely fears job cuts if they cede power to a non-profit corporation. Some assurance that the non-profit group will do its best to preserve black employees' jobs may be a step in the right direction. Given the history of the region, though, black leaders can't be blamed for thinking they see Jim Crow hiding behind every tree.
I think that it is nearly 100% about money, but also a bit about power as well. People who don't care if Grady folds are being short-sighted. Where do they think all these patients will go? They will end up at other area hospitals making the shortage of hospital services more acute. We also don't need to lose a Level 1 trauma center at a time when some facilities are scaling back emergency room services.
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