by MARK WIGGINS / KVUE News and photojournalist SCOTT MCKENNEY

kvue.com

Posted on September 24, 2012 at 6:25 PM

Updated yesterday at 6:41 PM

AUSTIN -- Posters popping up across town urge passers-by to "stop the bleeding." They are signs that opposition to a new University of Texas medical school and teaching hospital in Austin is organizing.

"We say that the way to keep Austin healthy is to 'stop the bleeding,'" said Don Zimmerman, founder and treasurer of the Travis County Taxpayers Union, a political action committee (PAC) dedicated to opposing a tax increase to fund the project. The committee is a counterpart to Keep Austin Healthy, a PAC created by supporters of the project.

Zimmerman argues a five-cent increase proposed by Central Health, equivalent to about $100 a year on a $200,000 home, is too much to ask of a community that has seen property taxes steadily rise.

"We're dying a death by a thousand cuts," said Zimmerman. "Each one of these taxes and each one of the tax increases by itself doesn't drive you out of your home, but when you add up all the property taxes and all the increases, people are literally being taxed out of their homes."

Along with investment from the University of Texas and Seton Healthcare Family, State Senator Kirk Watson (D-Austin) says the $35 million contributed by Austinites through a tax increase would be matched by more than $86 million in federal Medicaid funds.

Watson contracted TXP, Inc., an Austin-based consulting firm specializing in economic analysis, to study the impact of the project. Speaking with KVUE in August, president and founder Jon Hockenyos provided a detailed breakdown of economic data predicting a gain of 15,000 jobs and roughly $2 billion in economic activity as a result of the project.

More:
Opponents raise questions over proposed UT medical school