Hogan's Pledge for County Hospital Called 'Smoke and Mirrors'

By Rachel Bluth, Capital News Service and Deb Belt, Patch Editor

LARGO, MD — Gov. Larry Hogan released a supplemental budget Friday that he said will ensure the construction of a new Prince George’s Regional Medical Center in Largo, but County Executive Rushern Baker III called it “smoke and mirrors.”

The supplemental budget, which is an amendment to the funding plan Hogan introduced on Jan. 20, will provide $55 million between the 2017 and 2021 fiscal years as Prince George’s Hospital Center closes and the new medical center is built. Included in that money is $15 million in operating funds for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins in July.

“It’s been a long, sad story about the Prince George’s Hospital system, and this, we believe is a tremendous solution to decades of problems there,” Hogan said.

Baker said Hogan has only obligated the state to include $15 million in the FY 2017 budget. The governor did not make a commitment to release the $15 million in operating funds he has been withholding since last year, Baker added, which is needed, along with a new Memorandum of Understanding to ensure that the new hospital is approved by regulators and able to succeed once opened.

He urged Hogan to either support the current Prince George’s County Regional Medical Center Act of 2016 House and Senate bills, which would ensure state support for the hospital system until the new hospital is built. Or to enter into a new agreement between Prince George’s County, the State of Maryland, and the University of Maryland Medical System, which is how the state committed to this effort five years ago.

“To date, Governor Hogan has passed on both of these approaches, which calls into question whether he is really committed to fixing this problem for the long-term,” Baker said. “His action may seem like a step forward, but from where I sit, we still have a considerable ways to go.”

Days after he touted bipartisanship and advocated taking the “middle temperament” at his state of the state address Wednesday, Hogan announced the funding, undercutting legislation put forth by Senate President Thomas V. Mike V. Miller Jr., D-Calvert, that would have mandated funding for the hospital.

“I have no idea what that was all about, frankly,” Hogan said of Miller’s bill.

The supplemental budget was introduced to both chambers of the General Assembly shortly after Hogan announced it, eliciting light applause from the Senate.

Miller called it a “step in the right direction” for bipartisanship.

“It’s leadership, and it’s getting things done, it’s making things happen for the state of Maryland, talk is cheap, we govern by actions,” he said.

Though he said he was grateful for the funds, Miller complained that Hogan is still not communicating with him.

“All of us read about these things in the newspaper,” Miller said. “Like this supplemental budget, I’m glad he sent it down, but of course he had a press conference before he sent it down.”

The plan will transfer operations from the county to the University of Maryland Medical System, ending years of state “bailouts,” Hogan said, to keep the hospital functioning.

The budget also includes $135 million for construction of the new hospital, which includes $27.5 million that was already allocated for the medical center in Hogan’s original budget.

There are several applications and regulations that must be met before a new hospital may be built, including a certificate of need application signed by the Maryland Healthcare Commission.

Robert Chrencik, president and chief executive officer of the University of Maryland Medical System, said having support from the state will help the process along.