Polk County holds public hearing on up to $9.5 million bond issue for CHI St. Luke’s Memorial Livingston

Polk County Commissioners Court held a public hearing on Sept. 9, 2025, at the Polk County Regional Health Building, Suite A, on a proposal to issue up to $9,500,000 in bonds to finance and refinance projects at CHI St. Luke’s Health Memorial Livingston.

A Polk County Commissioners Court official said the public hearing was required by section 147(f) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, and read a summary saying the county projects are owned or operated by CommonSpirit Health affiliates and that the bonds would not “represent or constitute a debt or pledge of the faith and credit or the taxing power of the county or of the state of Texas.”

The court official described the county projects as financing or refinancing costs of acquisition, construction, renovation, installation of equipment, and related improvements for health-care facilities at the CHI St. Luke’s Health Memorial Livingston campus — including land, parking garages, buildings, clinics and warehouses — and referenced addresses including 1717 Highway 59 Bypass, Livingston.

Eric (last name not provided), identified at the hearing as president of the Lufkin campus with operations oversight for two other area facilities, described the proposal as “No. Just a simple refinancing of bonds for the company as a whole because we have operations here at Livingston.” He identified on-site and local contacts as Christy Frace (administrator, on-site) and Lehi Exton and Jason Minshew (operations directors).

A question was raised about the term used in the transcript as “Bandwidth Finance.” Eric explained the item was bond financing used across the health system to fund projects enterprise-wide.

No public comments opposing or supporting the bond issue were recorded during the hearing. The court official said formal consideration of a resolution approving the bond issuance would occur during the Polk County Commissioners Court regular session at 10:00 a.m. following the hearing.

Commissioner Furbis moved to adjourn the hearing; Commissioner Cassidy seconded. The court called for the ayes and the hearing was adjourned.

The matter remained on the court’s agenda for the subsequent regular session, where the commissioners were scheduled to consider a resolution to approve the bonds.