The Greene County Medical Center board of trustees approved a budget that holds the property tax levy at $2.74 (per $1,000 dollars of taxable valuation) for fiscal year 2015. The levy rate is unchanged since 2008.
Medical center controller Bill Steussy presented the budget at the trustees’ special meeting March 12. The levy will raise $1,642,297. Including a utility excise tax, the total property tax revenue to the medical center will be $1,704,539. That is an increase of $48,000 over the current fiscal year due to an increase in total taxable valuation in the county.
Steussy explained that the property tax revenue covers shortfalls in Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement and funding for new technology, as well as providing a cushion with the variability of patient-generated revenue.
Property tax revenue accounts for less than 7 percent of the total revenue in the medical center budget. The medical center’s tax asking accounts for about 8.5 percent of the total property tax bill collected by the county. The largest share of property taxes supports schools.
“Even though the $1,704,539 were asking for represents less than 7 percent of our total expenditures for the year, it is a very important 7 percent,” Steussy said. “Greene County Medical Center does not have the volumes in any category to support itself without some tax asking. That’s the reality of a rural hospital on today’s healthcare environment. We’re a community asset and we provide community benefits are are not necessarily profitable but are needed, like 24-hour emergency care…” Steussy said.
No property tax revenue will go into the expansion and renovation project, he added.
