Hospital district update

by Bill Williams

So, as most of you recall last November the Hospital District issue passed by a nearly 2:1 margin and everyone who worked so hard on getting it passed was ecstatic. The new board members all were sworn in within 10 days, the new board held a brief organizational meeting in early December and we appeared before the County Commissioners at their December 20 meeting and brought them up to date on what had been transpiring.

Everything was proceeding as we expected until we got a call from our County Assessor in early April telling us that the Department of Revenue was unable to certify the District to collect the 3 mils, because they had only found out we were a District a few days prior! What?? They knew we had passed the Specific Purpose Tax as all the people who collect sales tax in Hot Springs County had been notified in January to begin collecting the extra one cent April 1, 2017. How could they know about that and NOT know about the District?

Thus began a series of phone calls between DOR, the hospital and attorneys. This ended up with a trip by CEO Margie Molitor, attorney Ron Jurovich, Heath Overfield, John Lumley and me to Cheyenne to meet with the DOR and their AG representatives. It was explained to us that the DOR had to be notified of the existence of the District by December 31, 2016 in order to assess the tax in 2017. We argued that the election was certified, that the board had met, and subsequently met with the Commissioners prior to the deadline. They were sympathetic with us, promised to consider our dilemma and get back to us in a few days as to whether they would grant the exception. They declined to grant the exception. We could not assess the mils for 2017—BUT we ARE certified to begin in 2018.

This led to another meeting in Cheyenne that Kari Jo Gray, the governor’s chief of staff put together after visiting with John Lumley. She organized an impressive group of folks to meet with us. The basis of the meeting was to further explain the denial of the exception and to try to come up with ideas to help the hospital get some funding to replace the lost monies from the uncollected mils. There are statutes that the AG’s office delved into for two weeks before they were satisfied that their case to deny the exception was solid. After 2.5 hours it was agreed that our best option was to apply for an emergency grant from SLIB. The SLIB director did everything she could to help us get the grant application in place.

This led to one more trip to Cheyenne last week for John Lumley and me to appear before the SLIB board consisting of the Governor, State Treasurer, State Auditor, Secretary of State, and State Superintendent of Education. Our grant application was presented by the Director of SLIB with a do pass recommendation. They had several questions that we answered and discussed. In the end the grant was approved on a 3-2 vote and we have been awarded an emergency grant to make up for the current year’s lost funds from the mil levy.

So, to say the least it has been a learning experience. The upside is the hospital received funds to supplement the lost mil levy funds, and everyone who attended those meetings is now intimately familiar with how a District is really formed. In addition Kari Jo Gray from the Governor’s office and Bridgett Hill, Director of SLIB deserve kudos and thanks for their help in exploring ways to overcome the loss of funds and our application for the grant.