Rural hospitals got some much-needed assistance from the state Legislature this year, in the form of bills that will help with short- and long-term funding. But that may have cost local governments: there’s only so much money to go around, so other local priorities got less than they hoped for or may have to wait another year.
“All the money we got was for the hospital, basically,” McKinley County Manager Anthony Dimas said. “Our number one priority was to save our hospital, so that’s what they gave us.”
Most of the funding designated in the session will become available July 1 with the start of the 2025 fiscal year.
ABOUT THE BILLS
Passage of Senate Bill 17, the Health Care Delivery and Access Act, established a Medicaid Directed Payment Program that’s expected to generate $1.3 billion in federal funds for hospitals in the state; Senate Bill 161, Acute Care Facilities Subsidies, will give temporary financial assistance grants to help tide small hospitals over until SB17 money becomes available in 2025.
Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital will also benefit from two line items in the budget bill, both designated for any “non federal hospital in McKinley County.” One provides $12 million to backfill support money to the county and City of Gallup to make sure the hospital could make payroll from last December through the first part of this year. The other provides $15 million to help the hospital pay down its debt. Taxpayers have Sen. George Muñoz to thank for getting those into House Bill 2, which focuses on the state budget.
The funds were welcome news to RMCH Interim CEO Bill Patten, who is grateful for local and state support.
“The Legislature was very kind to us,” he said.“... The way the local politicians came together in support of us, I couldn’t ask for a better scenario.”
Local leaders recognize the importance of keeping rural hospitals in general, and RMCH in particular, open and serving their communities. However, it’s a tradeoff.
“They gave us $30 million in hospital money, so we can’t complain,” Dimas said. “I think the thinking is that if the county gets all this money from this pot, we don’t have to fund them with the other pot because we are doing all this for the hospital.”
WHERE CUTS WERE MADE
One big item the county didn’t get was $4.5 million to renovate the Red Rock Park campground. Other projects at the park are ongoing, but the campground will have to wait.
Funding requested for the county’s planned industrial park, extending County Road 1, Anni Clanni bridge and some other projects didn’t come through, although the state did chip in some bridge design money for Superman Canyon 1 and Bridge 8085, which runs under the railroad tracks at the east end of Gallup.
The City of Gallup was looking to fund some large water-related projects, asking for $15 million for wastewater treatment plant improvements and $12 million for a reverse osmosis system. They got $3 million toward planning, design and construction for wastewater treatment improvements.
Unfunded were requests for $3 million for another well to tide the city over until the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project begins delivery around 2029; $2 million for replacement water and wastewater lines; and $1.5 million for a well pump assembly to deliver the water.
Even the smaller requests weren’t completely covered. The city asked for $860,000 to put artificial turf on the fourth field at the Joe Vargas Veterans Sports Complex, but only got $300,000. A request for $500,000 for ongoing road maintenance got closer, with an award of $450,000, Assistant City Manager J.M. DeYoung said.
The city also got $400,000 for public safety furnishings for the new police station, which will ideally be ready for move-in by November; $200,000 toward designing the new regional animal shelter; and $60,000 for Mentmore trail improvements.
The city also got extensions on using some funding that was granted last year, so money banked for fire and police department recruiting and turf replacement will stay with the city until 2027 rather than reverting back to the state.
One thing that’s expected to help small governments statewide is a $75 million pot of seed money for federal grant matching. Agencies will be able to cite that as a source of matching funds when they apply for grants that require matching, but only draw money if they win the grants.
“It’s a new way of going about things,” Gallup-McKinley County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bill Lee said. “It got rid of the ‘junior money,’ a secondary annual funding bill that was veto-proof and had a reputation as a pork barrel.”
Lee is also pleased that local governments got some money for roads and bridges that are “desperately needed in McKinley County” and that the state opted to keep a 31% reserve.
He also applauded a measure that will improve communication among courts so that if a charged suspect who gets pretrial release is arrested for another crime, the judge handling the second case can take that into consideration when determining whether to release the suspect on the second case.
By Holly J. Wagner
Sun Correspondent
