PAY AS IT GOES

An innovative proposal by Harris County's only Hispanic commissioner would tax international money transfers to fund indigent health care.

As one of the top Latino elected officials in the United States, measured by number of constituents and size of budget, Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia is in a unique position to assure immigrants, many of whom send money back home, that she's looking out for their best interests. She will need that credibility to convince them and their advocacy groups that her proposed Health Care Recovery Fund deserves their support.

The commissioner wants to establish a fee on wire transfers of money from Texas to foreign countries to help county hospital districts foot the bill for medical services provided to indigent and uninsured patients. Among those paying the fee would be immigrants, legal and illegal, who send portions of their wages earned in the United States to relatives in their home countries. According to figures compiled by the Inter-American Development Bank, immigrants in Texas wire more than $3 billion to Latin American countries every year, the third highest total of any state.

The fee would amount to 50 cents (0.5 percent) per hundred dollars wired, with a maximum charge between $5 and $10. Garcia argues that it is important to keep the maximum fee low enough that banks and import-export businesses would be willing to pay rather than find other ways of transferring cash overseas. Considering that money transfer agents charge from $5 to $15 per $100 wired to Latin America, the proposed fee seems reasonable. A bill creating the wire transfer fee has been filed in Austin by Rep. Vilma Luna, D-Corpus Christi, and has drawn favorable responses from Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and aides to Gov. Rick Perry. The Greater Houston Partnership's health care advisory committee also has endorsed the plan

Garcia estimates that such a surcharge would return $5.7 million to Harris County this year, with those dollars earmarked for the Harris County Hospital District. Over the next 30 years, the fee, leveraged by bonds, could generate a half billion dollars for public health care here. According to Garcia, that money could allow the opening of a new trauma center and expansion of the county clinic system in her sprawling Precinct 2.

It would also defuse the arguments of some that Harris County should not provide medical services for undocumented workers regardless of ability to pay, as currently mandated by federal law. By paying the wire transfer fee, poor and illegal immigrants would be contributing to the costs of the county health system that serves them.

"It makes sense that the users of the system help pay for it," Commissioner Garcia said. "In proposing the fee, I'm prepared to take the [political] hits if I have to."

Much of the fees would be paid by businesses and bank customers, making the fees less a tax on immigration than a tax on the forces of globalism that swell the ranks of undocumented workers here.

Garcia's plan deserves careful examination by all sides. Solving Harris County's public health crisis, one that is both medical and financial, requires creativity and shared sacrifice. Taxing money transfers might be a bitter pill for some of Garcia's constituents to swallow, but it's vastly preferable to bankrupting the medical safety net and first-rate trauma care the Hospital District provides for all in Harris County.

If the proposed tax were closer to 50% of the transfer amount, it would enormously cut down on illegal immigration - by making it unprofitable to come here.

I'm astounded that it's taken hispanic Dimocrats to introduce this legislation.

This proposal should have Vicente Fox screaming like a stuck pig.

Just another innovative, out of the box idea, to keep legislators from having to deal with the REAL problem........the huge nuber of "taxpayer subsidized laborers" sucking the life out of our systems.

"Just another innovative, out of the box idea, to keep legislators from having to deal with the REAL problem"

The "real problem" is the two constitutional covenants that are being violated by "legislators" sworn to uphold the constitution.

The federal law requiring hospitals to treat emergency patients regardless of ability to pay without compensating the hospitals violates Amendment V:

"nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation."

And the failure of the national Congress to do their duty as enumerated in Article I, Section 8, Clause 15:

"To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions:"

"Taxing money transfers might be a bitter pill for some of Garcia's constituents to swallow,..."

But Garcia knows that those MOST opposed to this tax will be those who can't vote anyway!

For a legislator, this sounds like a win-win sitaution: you get to raise taxes, and the ones you're taxing can't vote on it - like taxing car rentals at the airport.

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