Published: September 21, 2009 03:59 pm      

Wishard, budget discussed at town hall meeting

INDIANAPOLIS — A town hall meeting last week at the Wayne Township branch of the Marion County Public Library began with a presentation by Matt Gutwein, president and CEO of Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County.

Gutwein and the staff of Wishard Hospital are proposing a new hospital on IUPUI’s campus. Most of Wishard’s buildings were built before 1940 and are too small to update mechanical systems and to facilitate new medical technologies, he explained.

Their main selling point for a new hospital: It can be done without raising any taxes.

“We no longer have the option of staying in our current facility,” Gutwein said. “We can fund a new hospital. It will cost $754 million. We hired three independent cost estimators to give us that number. Every single thing that goes in and out of the hospital is done, that (number) is set in stone.”

Gutwein said the hospital corporation has already put aside $150 million in cash as a down payment. That leaves the total that the corporation would need to finance at $604 million. They qualified for about $120 million in Build America bonds from the federal government and property tax revenue consists of about 5.4 percent of the 2009 revenue, about $24.9 million.

Gutwein said the corporation would owe $38 million a year for 30 years. He said the 2010 Health and Hospital Corporation budget is $894 million, leaving the $38 million at 4.25 percent of the total budget.

“We’ve been spending more than $25 million a year on upkeep,” he said. “It’s $13 million more than we’re spending today on upkeep. We have a net revenue of $51.9 million and that includes the $25 million we’re spending right now.”

Members of the audience of about 15 people raised questions about the possibility of the corporation raising taxes after telling the voters they wouldn’t have to.

“One of the most important questions is we’ve seen this before,” Gutwein said. “’Lucas Oil and the Central Library — they raised taxes for that, how do we know you’re different?’ We are fundamentally different. The CIB (Capital Improvements Board) funded those projects 100 percent by taxes. They don’t earn revenues. We generate revenues and we’re asking it to be funded through revenues.”

Gutwein also said the hospital corporation can cut expenses enough to meet the necessary amount, if it needs to.

One of the audience questions was concerning the health care debate going on in Washington, D.C.

“Nobody knows what will happen in Washington,” Gutwein replied. “We’re studying it extremely carefully. There are various scenarios being proposed and under those, Wishard does better, not worse. About 6 percent of our patients have commercial insurance, which is very low. The majority have no insurance.”

Rep. Phil Hinkle, R-92, had a few questions for Gutwein about the need to build the hospital now.

“Wishard Hospital is a real jewel, but I’m curious about the timing in this economic situation,” Hinkle said.

Gutwein said the economic situation works in the hospital’s favor and actually makes costs lower.

“Why now? It turns out as far as the actual cost of the project, there is no better time,” he said. “Interest rates are at all-time lows, and construction and commodities costs are at all-time lows.”

Linda Sanders said she is a nurse at another hospital and one of her friends who works at Wishard told her about the meeting.

“I know the building is not in good shape at all,” she said. “It’s nice to hear the CEO and president here. I feel very positive about it. At this point, I would vote yes.”

Also at the meeting, City Controller David Reynolds presented information about the city’s 2010 budget.

“I want to make sure everybody understands that 2010 is a balanced budget,” he said. “We’re moving in the right direction and focusing on what needs to be done. We still have a couple of tough years that we need to get through. The 2010 balanced budget includes a loss of about $30 million for circuit breaker tax caps. We believe in 2011 there will be zero growth in assessed value. It’s very minimum, very realistic.”

The Wishard Hospital Bond Issue Referendum, where voters will decide if the bonds will be issued to build a new Wishard Hospital, will be Nov. 3.

The Chapel Hill Village Association and other local neighborhood associations are hosting an information forum regarding the bond issues at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 23 in the Ben Davis High School auditorium.



charlee.beasor@flyergroup.com