Today, our members gathered outside DTC at Jackson Memorial Hospital to officially asked the Miami Marlins baseball team to use their revenues at the new publicly financed stadium to match, dollar-for-dollar, our $36 million financial sacrifice we are offering to save Jackson.
The Marlins recently unveiled a new, half-billion dollar, publicly funded, state of the art stadium that is within view from most patient rooms at Jackson. The new baseball facility, with its $250,000 sky boxes, $2.4 million sculpture, and a retractable roof, stands in stark contrast to Jackson’s many old and decaying buildings, which according to reports, are in need of close to a billion dollars in capital upgrades.
“The residents of Miami-Dade County stepped up to the plate for the Marlins, giving more than $450 million in taxpayer funds to build the new stadium – now the employees at Jackson are asking the Marlins to go to bat for our struggling public hospital,” President Martha Baker, RN, said.
Baker sent a letter to the six current commissioners who voted in favor of funding the stadium with taxpayer dollars (Rebecca Sosa, Pepe Diaz, Javier Souto, Dennis Moss, Bruno Barreiro and Audrey Edmonson) and Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria proposing the new innovative funding plan. (Click here to see the letter to commissioners)
Sports fans of Miami-Dade County have wanted the Marlins to have their own stadium for years, and sure enough that dream has finally come to fruition with a new half-billion dollar facility. Meanwhile, a mile away, our public hospital that literally saves the lives of Miami-Dade residents continues to struggle, with a $95 million budget deficit, and now a devastating plan to force 10 furlough days on a workforce that is already short staffed in many areas.
Patient care could be put at risk with this furlough plan and Jackson’s caregivers ask: who will care for patients?
“Employees at Jackson are asking our elected officials and the Marlins to re-examine our priorities and demonstrate what is valued most in this community,” Baker said. “If $450 million can be spent on a baseball stadium, can we find a way to close the $90 million budget deficit at Jackson?”
Watch the video from our press conference here!
