By Greg Bishop/Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – Opposing sides of a case about whether hospitals are exempt from paying property taxes agree – there needs to be clarity about what constitutes charity care.
The Illinois Supreme Court kicked back to the lower courts a ten-year-old property tax case to sort through what constitutes charity care. Carle Foundation hospital group spokesperson Laura Mabry said in an email it’s “critical that the standards for property tax exemptions and charity care are defined for all Illinois hospitals.”
Urbana Mayor Laurel Prussing agrees.
“And I think the Illinois Legislature needs to find out what the ramifications are because this is something that’s hurting cities,” she said.
Prussing also said this impacts Urbana’s other taxpayers.
“What Carle would normally be paying is shifted onto all the other taxpayers of Urbana,” she said.
The high court remanded the case back to the circuit court, but ultimately it is expected back in front of the Supreme Court over a period of time.
That means more time before the question of what constitutes charity care is answered.
“I have no problem with a struggling hospital getting some kind of a tax break, like a rural hospital where people depend on it, but if it’s an extremely profitable business, if they get a tax break, what they do is shift their tax burden onto every other business and all the residents,” Prussing said.
Prussing questions what Carle Foundation claims is charity care.
The News-Gazette in Champaign reports Carle Foundation paid $20.8 million for disputed tax years 2004 through 2011.
In an email, Carle Foundation said the group will continue to review its tax case in the Champaign County Circuit Court.
Mabry wrote, “In 2015 alone, 34,000 people received free medically necessary care at Carle that totaled $30.6 million at cost. These community benefits far outweigh the estimated property tax amounts.”
Bloomberg reports the state has more than 100 petitions from hospitals seeking property tax exempt status, but they’re on hold pending the outcome of the case.
