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Parkland Hospital Sets Fundraising Record DALLAS, TX (KERA) - Dallas County's Parkland Hospital has received the largest private donation in the country for a public hospital. Now, officials will push for November's bond package to help pay the bulk of building the new hospital.

$50 million from the Simmons family, another $25 million from the Rees-Jones family, along with other gifts, total nearly $80 million private dollars for a new Parkland Hospital. That's a healthy but relatively small down payment on the future facility. First, voters must approve taxes through a bond proposal to cover most of the construction costs.

Both Republican and Democratic County Commissioners, whose appointees oversee Parkland, support a new hospital. At a donor's announcement, County Commissioner Mike Cantrell called the bond package an easy sell.

Dallas County Commissioner Mike Cantrell: If you add Parkland's tax rate and the county tax rate, it's the lowest in the state. We've been prudent, so they have low taxes. But when we do need taxes, we need the community's support.

Commissioner John Wiley Price says for the few pennies a new hospital will cost taxpayers, it's a bargain.

Price: It's such an integral part of this community. If Parkland went away, the health care network here would collapse.

So far, there is no organized opposition to the Parkland bond proposal.

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