Galveston County Daily News, July 30, 2009
This article is about Galveston County Judge Jim Yarbrough and efforts to create a hospital district that in turn would allow UTMB to sell $150 million in tuition revenue bonds to help pay for a new 220-bed hospital tower. "Without the new tower, the medical branch would not have enough beds to continue to operate as a major regional medical center, the county would lose its Level 1 trauma center and the state's oldest medical school would become a medical junior college," Yarbrough said. Even though officials think the medical branch's survival depends on the hospital district's creation, the new taxing entity faces strong opposition from county residents who don't want their tax bills to go up. "We're not fools," Yarbrough said. "Asking people to vote to raise their taxes is a tough battle."