Update: Sullivan Commission Supports King College Med School
The comments of citizens in the Bristol Herald Courier link below might be of interest to you. Some great comments concerning the King Medical School.
Sullivan County Commissioners voted on July 20, 2009 to support the King College proposed medical school.There was one lone commissioner that voted against the resolution to support the medical school. Thank you Commissioner John McKamey for using good logic in your “no” vote. It appears that the remaining commissioners are more concerned about money than they are about understanding the area’s problems.
Sullivan County’s resolution, approved in a 21-1 vote, also included no money for the project.
Commissioner John McKamey of Piney Flats cast the lone dissenting vote. He said the county has a shortage of doctors because it hasn’t done anything to keep the ones who graduate from programs like the Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tenn., from leaving the area.
“Over half the people who graduate [from Quillen] leave the area,” McKamey said as he challenged one of the reasons for supporting the school. “The solution to this thing is to keep the doctors here.”
McKamey said if the county supports the medical school now, it would commit itself to paying $100 million in taxpayer money. He said the $50 million in local taxes and $50 million in state taxes would be too large a burden for the region’s residents to bear.
Read more via Sullivan Commission Supports King College Med School | TriCities.