Iola commissioners repeated their support today to help Allen County fund operations of a new hospital, but said several questions still begged answers before they put that support in writing.
Time is running short for the city and county to come to an agreement to have a quarter-cent sales tax referendum in the Nov. 2 general election. The county has until the first week of September to set the ballot language.
The county has asked the city to set aside a portion of the city’s sales taxes for capital improvements — up to $350,000 annually — to help with start-up capital. If the city agrees, the county will ask taxpayers only for a quarter-cent sales tax increase.
If the city does not provide assistance, the county then would seek a half-cent sales tax hike.
City commissioners, in a special session this morning, met privately with
City Attorney Chuck Apt for 30 minutes before spelling out their questions in public:
— Will the city have input on where the new hospital is built, and how it is operated?
— Is city funding going toward operating expenses for a new hospital or its
construction?
The city’s final question came more as a statement and returned to a familiar source of contention — the city’s ambulance service.
“The county’s refusal to be forthright and acknowledge the right of the citizens of Iola to operate their own ambulance service has created an atmosphere of distrust,” Maness said. “The county agreed to drop the ambulance issue as a delay of convenience. First they said they would drop the issue for six months, then they said until 2011, which already drops two months from that.”
JIM GILPIN, one of several private citizens brought on board to promote the hospital referendum, answered some of the city’s questions.
The city’s sales tax contribution — a quarter of a cent — will go toward operations. A contract presented to the city listed “operations and construction,” which is necessary for bond language, Gilpin explained.
David Toland, a member of the Hospital Facilities Commission, which recommended the county build a new health care center instead of remodeling the existing Allen County Hospital, noted that a new hospital would be governed by a local board of directors instead of a private corporation, such as HCA.
“The profits have to stay here in order for the financing to work,” Toland said.
The size and makeup of the hospital’s board of directors has not yet been determined.
Maness said the city also had questions about when a location for the proposed hospital would be announced.
“The city has a definite interest in terms of infrastructure in how much we can afford,” Maness said. “I know this sounds challenging, but these are answers we must know before we can commit the citizens of Iola to this kind of investment.”
Maness noted that Iolans also would pay the county’s sales tax, meaning Iola residents would fund roughly two-thirds of the $750,000 in sales tax revenues necessary to provide the startup capital.
THE CITY’S reluctance to put pen to paper on the hospital issue led to another series of questions by Gilpin.
If the city does not agree to fund a portion of the startup capital, and a subsequent half-cent sales tax vote fails, is Iola setting itself up to build and operate a city hospital, he asked.
No, Maness replied, “it’s not a goal of the city’s” to operate its own hospital. “We just have questions about understanding what we need to offer.”
Iolan Sharon Boan, sitting in the audience, asked whether it was legal for one taxing entity — the city — to share sales tax revenue with another — the county.
Such a strategy was proper, Apt responded, as long as the funds go toward “a public purpose.” A hospital would qualify, he said.
