LETTER: IHC should pay property taxes

Dear Editor, For years my parents have been in the health care system, my mother working for a for-profit company and my father for a not-for-profit company. With all my years in school, public education has always been a problem. I’ve heard teachers complain my whole life about the lack of pay. I’ve had good teachers and bad teachers; whether their commitment is the difference or their lack of pay is the difference, I don’t know. Most businesses and all people who reside in the state of Utah pay property tax. Renters don’t directly pay property tax, but building owners do. Everybody pays them, so why does the Intermountain Health Care System, who claims to be a not-for-profit company, not have to pay? Between 60 and 70 percent of property tax goes to education. With my parents paying $1,000 a year, $700 of that goes to education. Look at the money that could be available if IHC paid property taxes on their facilities. Logan physicians have had their own fight with IHC. Many of the physicians tried to compete with the IHC system. Not only does IHC control 80 percent of those covered in Utah, but they also own the majority of the hospital facilities. They also own and manage several of the insurance plans. It makes it very difficult for any other provider of health care to compete. In 1987, the state put the not-for-profit status to the public (proposition 21 on state ballot). The ballot passed, which means they should have been paying property taxes. Then the state decided to allow each county to make their own decision whether or not IHC hospitals should have to pay property taxes. What’s interesting is that many of the county commissioners have always sat on the boards of the IHC hospitals. Does that sound right to you? This is obviously too big of a problem for me to solve in this letter. Gov. Leavitt and the government of the state of Utah need to give some serious consideration to this problem.

Marnie Andrews