To the editor:
These are not the best of times. The increased cost of gas and home-heating oil has caused us to pause and wonder where the good times have gone. I have pondered a hundred times how the many older folk who are on fixed incomes and who had a tough time last year paying to heat their homes will be able to heat those same homes this year. Some — no, many — will not. And now we discover the city, which perhaps has not been wise enough to save a little nest egg for an uncommon occurrence — radical increase in the cost of all kinds of fuel, for instance — has come up real short ($100,000-plus) in funds to get it by in the very near future. Well, I have a great solution and have offered it before in a public forum (Star-Herald). Our local hospital (TAMC), a self-proclaimed “non-profit” institution, has never volunteered to contribute even one cent toward its assessed tax obligation ($500,000-plus) because it (TAMC) every year proclaims its non-taxable (non-profit) status, therefore, isn’t obliged to pay any property tax.
Now understand that when an institution refuses to pay its assessed tax load, others (us) have to make up the difference. Despite its refusal to contribute to the city’s community health and welfare through taxes, TAMC still demands that we supply it with all the city services like snow plowing, police and fire protection, road maintenance, etc. Can you imagine just how far the extra $500,000 could go toward supplying the extra funds the city requires at this time.
I’m always appalled at the hospital (with all its highly paid executives, newly constructed suites, expensive offices which have little to do with patient care, etc.) refusing to pay its fair share of property taxes. While TAMC feasts, regular taxpayers scrape for scraps to pay their taxes. I simply don’t get it. Does anyone? That extra $500,000 could also help the older folk with heating their homes, right?
I reckon it won’t happen. Shame on TAMC.
Presque Isle
