Election night could have dealt a near-fatal blow to St. John’s Health’s finances. But instead, two ballot measure outcomes doubled the property tax allotment for the valley’s largest year-round employer.
First, Wyoming voters defeated a statewide 50% property tax cut on residences, meaning the area’s only hospital got to keep the base rate of approximately $12 million it already sees in county property taxes. Then, 73% of Teton County voters supported an addition of property taxes equal to the amount at stake. In dollars, that means the county’s only hospital could see about $24 million a year in property taxes next year. In recent years, the hospital has spent more than $220 million a year, mostly on salaries and wages.
The funds come at a critical time as federal cuts restrict budgets and the hospital expects rates of uncompensated care to grow. St. John’s operated at a loss of nearly $12 million last year, down from a nearly $19 million deficit the year before.
To avoid mass layoffs and critical service cuts, the hospital outsourced some staff payroll and closed or partially closed an inpatient rehab facility and four clinics.
Now the public hospital can expect to stop operating in the negative, according to St. John’s Health Board of Trustees Chair Dr. Pam Cutler, not suddenly turn a large profit.
“It’s just really a relief,” Cutler said. “This will help us immensely to continue to do the good job that we’ve done.”
It’s not clear precisely where the funds will go.
“We don’t have this money slotted to just be one thing,” Cutler said. “In general, we have looked at it as a way of supporting care for people that can’t pay or don’t pay, because we have a significant amount of that.”
In the last year, the hospital reinvigorated its cancer care plans in an effort that will also provide a more reliable source of income for the hospital.
Services like maternity care and emergency services don’t always break even, CFO Mitch Watson recently told KHOL.
The hospital isn’t the only publicly funded service provider breathing a sigh of relief.
A coalition of education and hospital leaders launched a campaign in September to warn of potential service cuts. In the final days before the election, Gov. Mark Gordon added his voice to the campaign against the tax relief measure.
The exact amount that will land in the hospital’s coffers is hard to pin down.
It automatically receives 3 mills – or $1 of taxes for every $1,000 of a home’s assessed value – by state statute. For a property with a market value of $1 million, the hospital said the measure would add about $285 a year in taxes.
Election Day outcomes mean St. John’s can expect a figure twice that of last year’s $12.4 million, which was lower than previous years following the implementation of statewide tax relief for older homeowners.
The hospital has reached the state-mandated legal maximum amount for how much it can levy in property taxes.
