The council is hereby authorized and empowered to pay to any hospital located in the county not receiving state aid and caring for county tax eligible indigent patients, such sum not exceeding fifty thousand dollars ($50,000.00) as the council shall determine; such sum to be a grant-in-aid of the hospital to promote the general public health and welfare of the people of the county. (Mont. Co. Code 1965, § 11-3; 1947, Sp. Sess., ch. 60.)