From a letter from John Lines, Director, Public Relations & Corporate Communications:
“Most properties within the city and county owned by LG Health and its affiliates are fully maintained on the tax rolls – even when such properties are used to further our charitable mission, rendering them legally tax-exempt. This ensures that Lancaster General Health pays nearly $1.7 million in additional tax revenue to several local municipalities and school districts.”
Lines then goes on to provide examples of payments. Let’s examine taxes paid on their holdings in the City of Lancaster:
Tax Payments to municipalities
$208,000 to Lancaster County
$161,000 to Lancaster City
$344,000 to School District of Lancaster
$713,000 for all three
All things considered, the effective total county, school disrict and municipal tax rate on real estate in the City is around 3% of market value. If we divide $713,000 by 0.03, we come up with a total market value for its holdings $23,767,000.
Is it conceivable that Lancaster General Hospital in downtown Lancaster alone is worth less than $100 million! And if so, LGH is only paying a tiny fraction of what their taxes would otherwise be if not exempted as a ‘non-profit charity.’
On the positive side, Lines does report that LGH annually contributes $1.2 million to the City of Lancaster.
We will examine similar assertions by Lines in future articles.
It has been reported at City Council that LGH pays Lancaster City over $100,000 a month in Payments In Lieu Of Taxes, and a similar amount to the SDoL. I do know that the City receives over $1.2 million annually from LGH over and above whatever real estate tax revenue is legally owed.