Doug Clark: Alston gives public a piece of his mind : News-Record.com : Greensboro & the Triad's most trusted source for local news and analysis

Guilford County Commissioners Chairman Skip Alston gave a piece of his mind after last week's budget hearing. This is edited for length:

"To say that 52,000 children are going to go without health care if this board does not give Moses Cone another million dollars for adult health care and therefore they will not fund or continue the contract for child health care is totally irresponsible, even for Cone Hospital to even insinuate that. Before we had this agreement with Moses Cone, with child health care, we was taking care of all the children in this county. And if Moses Cone decides to abandon our child health care program because we won't give them another one million dollars for adult health care, then that's on them, but we are not going to abandon our children in this county. Our health department is equipped to take care of every child in this county if Moses Cone decides to abandon them because we won't give them that one million dollars. Moses Cone made $35 million profit last year, OK? They had over $75 million of capital improvements last year. This county lost $17 million this year. So it's a question of whether or not we will want to try to save a million dollars for our taxpayers or allow Moses Cone to make $36 million profit next year. We chose, according to the manager, to say we wanted to look out for the taxpayers and not to try to supplement Moses Cone's profit margin.

"So we are not going to abandon our responsibility to our children or our adults. We will make sure that our adults that can't afford health care will be taken care of. So I don't want anyone to think that I or anyone on this board, I would hope they would not, would vote for anything that would hurt our children and not provide the necessary health care for our community. That's what we are elected to do, not to give another million dollars to someone that's trying to say that they're not going to contract with us if we don't contract with them on another contract. That's not our responsibility. Our responsibility is to look out for the children of this county, and that's what we're going to do. And I am not going to be voting for a budget that's going to cut services to the poor or those that can't help themselves. So don't think that for a minute, regardless of what the News & Record wants to try to portray. At the same time we are trying to cut where we can cut with fat within county government. I still think there's a lot of things in Guilford County government that can be run a lot more efficient, and we're looking at those things ... and the manager is doing an excellent job, regardless of the criticism that she gets for trying to do what is in the best interest of this county. ... We can't lamblast her to the newspaper, as the newspaper is trying to do, and say she is not trying to look out for the citizens of this county. That is not the case.

"Again, the budget that is passed will be passed by us. And if the majority of this board wants to have a tax increase, then you get six votes and you have a tax increase. It's that simple. We don't have to have a no tax increase. I would not be voting for a budget with a tax increase because I don't think it's necessary. I think the manager's doing an excellent job of identifying cuts in our county government that's not going to hurt this county. Yes, we're going to have to tighten it up a little bit. We're not used to that. We're usually passing the buck to the taxpayer. But times have to change. And that's why we're trying to make sure we do more with less. ...

"But if the majority of this board wants to have a 4- or 5-cent tax increase, if you want to give the school board all their money, you don't want to ask any hard and tough questions, you don't want to make the tough decisions, vote for a tax increase. ...

"For the gentleman to come up and say PHS Prison Health Services, like the people in the prison don't deserve or are not getting quality services. We're talking about people. And I didn't appreciate that at all. OK? Because the people that are in prison, they deserve the same quality of health care as anybody else out there walking on the street, and they get it. So to say that we have a less quality health care given to our prisoners, therefore they can't take care of the average citizen out there is totally reckless and irresponsible, and I think for a person of the medical society to come up and criticize another medical professional, because every person in that clinic will be a certified licensed doctor, not a veterinarian, a certified medical doctor that will be taking care of the people that come to that clinic for services, and to insinuate otherwise is totally reckless and irresponsible, and I don't like it."

Panacea

May 12, 2010 - 7:51 am EDT

Prison Health Services does not have a good reputation. An inmate locally died under their watch due to incompetence. There have been other deaths; they routinely deny needed care in order to maximize their profits.

The idea of them providing services to the public at large is scary.

And the only reason Skip Alston doesn't want a tax increase is because he doesn't want to pay increased taxes on all his properties.

He is right that Cone's complaints are a bit hard to take, but then Cone is a for profit organization (non profit status not withstanding).

But if Guilford County could take care of every person who needed health care, then it wouldn't be cutting funding to Guilford Adult Health in the first place. I call BS on that one, Alston.

tonymo

May 12, 2010 - 11:36 am EDT

Once agin we see a typical pro-nanny state, government employee (notice I didn't say worker) attacking Capitalism in general, and the profit motive in particular! It is the private sector that allows her to live off the taxpayers since the government produces NOTHING that creates wealth, but merely uses the wealth to fund mostly useless government employees salaries, and far too generous (when compared with the private sector) benefits.

For crying out loud folks, simply look at Greece, and the refusal of the public sector, and their corrupt unions to acknowledge the reality of their situation, brought on mostly by themselves! The same type leeches marched in Raliegh not long ago to protest a very small pay cutmade necessary by of our dire financial situation, and despite the fact that the private sector was hit much harder.

The very same types of "you owe ME" people that are bringing Europe to it's knees, are doing the same thing here. Just wait until the truth about the underfunded public sector pension funds come out! They will, and already have begun, demand that the taxpayers bail them out because they are too important to share the pain with the rest of us!

May 12, 2010 - 3:48 pm EDT

Since you pointed it out, I did notice. You know nothing about what I do and can't be bothered to find out.

I am not attacking capitalism in any form, or the profit motive. Adam Smith, author of On the wealth of Nations, wisely observed that healthcare should not be subjected to market principles because its importance to society was too important. Smith is the father of the free market, in case you didn't know (you probably didn't).

I don't object to a private contractor earning a fair profit working for the state. I object when profit is put before people, and people suffer. That is what Prison Health Services does: puts profits before people and fails to fulfill the obligations of its contract to maximize said profits. Take a little time to educate yourself on this issue, tony:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/27/nyregion/27jail.html

In case you hadn't noticed, banks have been creating artificial wealth for years. They post incredible profits based on speculation and risk, while producing nothing. These same risky lending practices, and shady deals with CDO's and other obscure "products" are what led to the problems in Greece. Oh sure, it led to a false sense of financial security and some poor decisions on social entitlements. But the issue isn't that people in Greece felt they were owed anything without having to produce. They were misled into thinking the good times would last forever, and that they could afford what they were doing. They are finding out the hard way they were wrong.

It's frustrating that you won't bother to learn just what it is your government workers really do for you. Because of government workers we have safer water, safer food, safer medicine, safer construction, safer roads, safer cars, a strong national defense, a strong and independent judiciary, and personal freedoms enjoyed few other places in the world.

I won't deny that we are in serious financial trouble. I'll even concede that workers will have to make concessions to fix things.

So will Wall Street, and they haven't. They continue to pick our pockets at every turn, and expect the taxpayer to bail them out when they fail. They are a worse leech on society than any union ever dreamed of being.

Beachwalk

May 14, 2010 - 3:51 pm EDT

"It's frustrating that you won't bother to learn just what it is your government workers really do for you."

It is also frustrating that you refuse to see how much government actually cost citizens in over taxation and un-necessary regulations. If it wasn't for too much government, we could probably have more water for less money, we could have food that is still safe that cost less. Because of these government leeches, the same medicine we buy here in the U.S. can be bought across our northern or southern borders for 80% less. We have construction standards that many inspectors can't even understand and different inspectors apply them differently. Many government workers whose job it is to "make people safer" really waste tax payer money by coming up with un-necessary laws, regulations, rules, etc. because they feel they have to justify their jobs.
Here is great example. This example is in SC, but the example will fit any local, state, or federal government. The agency that regulates public swimming pools in SC, this year made a new rule saying the tiles/sign around the edge of swimming pools that indicate the pool depth must have all the numbers/letters the same font size. Example: a tile that says 3 ft., the "ft." must now be of the same size as the "3". I own a condo in Myrtle Beach. The depth indicators on our pool were as follows: on our 4 FT. tile, the "4" was aprox. 4 inches tall, the "FT" was aprox 3.25" tall. You could read them fine, even from the top (5th) floor of the condo. It cost our condo association over $2500 to get these items change. We are just one of tens of thousands of condos/hotels in SC. Our condo is over 25 years old and I KNOW for a fact this has NEVER been a problem with safety at our pool. And I will bet anyone, any amount of money, this un-necessary law WILL NOT save a single life or prevent a single injury. This is a case of a government worker trying to justify their government-paying job, by making up some ridiculous regulation. It happens all the time.

No doubt, we must have government involve with parts of our society. But we are to the point where government (local, state and especially federal) is way over loaded with bureaucracy, un-necessary positions, waste and regulation. To the point of government is now a hindrance to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

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