Members of the Montgomery City Council and Montgomery County Commission will vote on Tuesday to approve another $15 million for Jackson Hospital.
The new spending would be in addition to previous spending packages approved for the financially-ailing hospital, with the hope of the state matching the local spending.
“The City and County both voted locally $25 million total locally to help Jackson, hoping the State would match that, and I think the State has agreed to match that. Then there was an opportunity for the State to do maybe $15 million more if there was a local match of the $15 million so the City and County will be voting at their next meetings on December 16 whether or not to commit over the next three to five years to add $7.5 million over that time period so the State would end up matching them,” Montgomery County Commission chairman Doug Singleton told 1819 News in a recent interview.
“That would give the State, City, County, locals up to $80 million," he added. "The goal was to try to get to $100 million. We’re not going to quite get there, but Rick Jackson with Jackson Healthcare will hopefully make a decision on whether or not he wants to move forward in hopes that in the next three to five years, the feds, Katie Britt’s office, Shomari Figures, they will be able to step in and help us some. They have not been able to help yet. That’s kind of what the plan is going forward, and we’re doing everything we can to provide quality health care in Montgomery County and Jackson Hospital is a huge, huge piece of that. We’re doing everything we can to keep it open.”
The agenda item posted on the Montgomery County Commission’s site states the new $7.5 million in spending will be paid over three years at $2.5 million per year, contingent on the “participation of the City of Montgomery and/or other entities in providing an equitable portion of funding necessary for the sustainability of Jackson Hospital.”
Gina Maiola, Gov. Kay Ivey’s spokesperson, told 1819 News, “The health and safety of citizens served by Jackson Hospital is of paramount concern to Governor Ivey, but so is the responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars.”
“To this end, Governor Ivey has been engaged with local officials, federal partners and Jackson Hospital stakeholders for months and continues to closely monitor all developments regarding the hospital’s future. Governor Ivey expects local officials to engage further this week to support Jackson, and she will respond with her commitment at the appropriate time,” she added.
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