Written by Brad Buck, the article disclosed the tax reform efforts of Marilyn Bainter to improve oversight and constitutional legitimacy of the tax.
You can read the article HERE.
We noticed that all three pictures in the Daily Commercial were of recipients of care, or salaries from the hospitals, and there were no pictures of taxpayers in foreclosure who maybe could use the taxes now given to two local hospitals without any rules at all on how the funds are to be spent. Other than quotes from Bainter, no other supporters of tax reform were quoted.
The tax generates about $10-million split between local Leesburg and Waterman hospitals, and the article did not disclose that both hospitals are PRIVATE non-profit corporations which have reported significant profits recently or in the past. It also did not discuss that non-profit hospitals are SUPPOSED to absorb expenses for indigent care in return for escaping all taxes waived for non-profits. Thus, the hospitals are getting duplicate benefits: They do not have to pay property and other taxes because they are non-profits and must absorb indigent care costs, but then they get payments from the Hospital tax AGAIN for the indigent expenses. And, we should mention that other local health care providers are NOT non-profits, and must compete with the hospitals which both escape taxes and get District tax payments to subsidize them.
We have written before about the total lack of specific rules on how the funds are to be spent, or how they are not accounted for in separate accounts with ability to verify where they were spent. The Hospital District Board, which has 4 members who support the hospitals without question, refuse to initiate any type of forensic audit to verify how the funds were spent, and they refuse to meet monthly for public meetings to define tighter rules on acceptable uses for the funds.
And, so it goes...
vj
