McHenry County’s biggest employer is Centegra Health System.
It operates two hospitals as not-for-profit enterprises.
Yesterday, discussions were undoubtedly being held at Centegra and Mercy Health Systems (operators of the Harvard Hospital) concerning the revocation of the property tax exemption for three Illinois hospitals:
- Prentice Women’s Hospital (part of the Northwestern Memorial complex),
- Edwards Hospital (whose president blew the whistle on Stuart Levine when he tried to shake down her institution in return for an expansion in Will County) and
- Decatur Memorial Hospital
Looking at “charity care,” based on an Illinois Supreme Court decision regarding the stripping of real estate tax exempt status of Urbana’s Provena Covenant Medical Center.
The Champaign County hospital now pays $1.2 million to local tax districts.
The Macon County Board of (Assessment) Review had assessed the Decatur hospital.
As far as I know, there is no immediate threat to Centegra’s two hospitals.
Decatur Memorial Hospital is owed around 1.4 million dollars by Macon County. Macon County, it is thought, panicked and threw DMH into the court system to see if there was a way to retain this money. DMH is fighting this obvious grab for money from a very charitable and socially conscious hospital system. They should win and Macon County will have to pay the legal fees, the 1.4 million and will have to deal with a very upset constituent base. SO sad when government gets so out of control they attempt to kill even those doing good things for and with the community.
Lets face ut…. the hospital will not pay property taxes, their patients will. You know, the ones that can’t afford insurance or the cost of hospital bills as it is.
Maybe Obama and the Dems can fund this from somewhere!
Excellent point. I often wonder if those screaming for raised taxes on corporations realize those companies never pay for the taxes, their customers do.
I wonder if those who scream to raise taxes on the rich know that most “rich” people own or are decision makers in businesses and never pay taxes, their customers do.
I wonder if those screaming for more taxes know the net taxes collected have gone up when the rate is lowered.
I also wonder if the self same people who scream for raised taxes realize raising taxes only ends up widening the wealth gap because the people who can least afford to pay any taxes, the wage earners, end up paying the most…. Every time.
I am tired of those who harm The People under the guise of government being the best form of social arbiter.
So far the government has failed in everything it has touched to socially engineer our society and the people who suffer are the retired, the working poor, the children(state funding was pulled from the most effective adoption/foster agency recently and the schools are an obvious measurable disaster), the sick, the mentally ill….
The ones who should be most protected take the most pain in their lives because some who want so badly to help cannot or willfully will not understand the government is not the answer.
The People have always been, and continue to be, the most charitable, equitable and effective arbiter of their neighbor’s care. Thank God this hospital is powerful enough to fight the predations of an out of control government.