City Council votes to keep WMC tax exempt with amended ordinance

City Council voted to keep WMC campus tax exempt with an amended ordinance that will require WMC to make a payment to the city that will be $750,000 annually in lieu of be taxed.  It will be billed semi-annually and is reviewable every six years.

Kudos to the City Council for understanding that this David vs. Goliath battle would of been a heavy financial burden on the City of Winchester.

If WMC’s request for tax exemption for the campus was denied tonight, anyone could assume that an inevitable lengthy litigation process would have taken place.  A costly litigation process would have not been in the best interest of the City with its limited resources as compared to Valley Health Systems.

This agreement has ended the current litigation between VHS and the City of Winchester.

WMC and VHS’s reps must be thrilled with such agreed upon payment once one reviews would could have been.

Something to ponder, in 2009 ... WMC (not-for-profit) paid $98,896 in taxes to the City of Winchester and Lewis-Gale (for-profit) paid Salem-City $17,744,293 as it makes one wonder, was there some money left on the table?

Click here to review:
Winchester Medical Center (not-for-profit) and Lewis-Gale Medical Center (for-profit) 2009 comparison

Please note that WMC's down year in profitability for 2008 of just $9.5 million rebounded quite well in 2009 with $53.7 million.

This website: http://www.faqs.org/tax-exempt/VA/Winchester-Medical-Center.html# has profit figures that were documented for years 2000-2006 as the Winchester Medical Center had a 10yr profit total of $365.5 million during years 2000-2009.

$11,917,127 - 2000

 $4,262,944 - 2001

$25,868,766 - 2002

$35,113,921 - 2003

$46,711,931 - 2004

$54,346,679 - 2005

$57,422,789 - 2006
$66,617,961 - 2007 per IRS990
 $9,500,911 - 2008 per IRS990
$53,757,390 - 2009 per http://www.vhi.org/hospital_detail.asp?fac_numb=1934

 
$365,520,419 ...  Winchester Medical Center's profits 2000-2009