The city of Tacoma, Wash., the headquarters of both MultiCare and Franciscan Health System, is proposing the restoration of business and occupation taxes to the two major non-profit systems to help assuage the city's budget deficit, according to a News Tribune report.
MultiCare and Franciscan have received full and partial breaks from paying Tacoma's B&O tax rate for decades, and hospital officials said eliminating those tax exemptions is the "wrong approach" to solving the city's financial crisis, according to the report.
Under the proposal, which was also floated earlier this year, the tax breaks would be reinstated Jan. 1, 2015, which is after the next city budget cycle ends. The health systems would pay a 0.2 percent tax rate, which the city council said is only half as much as what the full tax rate should be, according to the report.
"We've lived without this money for a long, long time," Tacoma Councilman Joe Lonergan said in the report. "But we find ourselves in an unprecedented situation. As a result, we're grabbing for money. My fear is that without some sort of forced re-examination, it will be too easy to make this [budget problem] the status quo."
Tacoma currently has a $63 million budget deficit projected for 2013-14. The city said on average, both MultiCare and Franciscan are spared $6 million every city budget cycle in B&O tax breaks.
MultiCare and Franciscan have received full and partial breaks from paying Tacoma's B&O tax rate for decades, and hospital officials said eliminating those tax exemptions is the "wrong approach" to solving the city's financial crisis, according to the report.
Under the proposal, which was also floated earlier this year, the tax breaks would be reinstated Jan. 1, 2015, which is after the next city budget cycle ends. The health systems would pay a 0.2 percent tax rate, which the city council said is only half as much as what the full tax rate should be, according to the report.
"We've lived without this money for a long, long time," Tacoma Councilman Joe Lonergan said in the report. "But we find ourselves in an unprecedented situation. As a result, we're grabbing for money. My fear is that without some sort of forced re-examination, it will be too easy to make this [budget problem] the status quo."
Tacoma currently has a $63 million budget deficit projected for 2013-14. The city said on average, both MultiCare and Franciscan are spared $6 million every city budget cycle in B&O tax breaks.
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