How Much Is Too Much?

My wife and I moved to Dayton in the fall of 2010 from Bothell, Washington. We selected Dayton as our home because of Dayton's atmosphere and small town charm. Dayton is unique because it possesses many amenities found in larger cities - the Courthouse, a grocery store, banks, City Park, public pool, K-12 school system, public library, fair grounds, nursing home, and hospital.

When approached with the current proposed hospital bond levy, I questioned why the hospital district needed $5.5 million in capital improvements to restore the expiring Medicare Depreciation, which is used to finance the Booker Nursing Home. The supporters of the hospital levy have insinuated that the hospital will close without the funding provided by the levy, however the hospital is self-sustaining and only the nursing home is operating at a loss.

Why isn't the hospital asking for the $376,000 in operating capital necessary to make up the difference in the Booker loss?

In 2003, the voters of Columbia County and Waitsburg approved a $5.9 million bond levy to "modernize Dayton General Hospital, Assisted Living Center and Consolidated Rural Health Clinic, Construct a new Dayton Family Medical Clinic, acquire land and construct a new Waitsburg Family Medical Clinic, and carry out other capital purposes as determined by the commissionhellip;" The 2003 levy will be repaid with interest in 2028.

In 2007, the voters of Columbia County and Waitsburg approved a $2.8 million bond levy for the construction of new healthcare facilities. The 2007 bond will also be repaid with interest in 2028. These bonds are backing loans drawn by the Hospital District from private financial institutions at 5.1% interest compounded semi-annually. The total loan amount repaid by the taxpayer is nearly double the bond amount. The total annual payment on these two bonds is approximately $650,000; nearly double the financial shortfall from Booker.

The Hospital District's current trend of tax and spend is unsustainable with the district borrowing between $2-6 million every 4-10 years on bonds repaid in 25 years. If the proposed bond levy passes, the total debt owed by the taxpayers of Columbia County and Waitsburg is over $15 million before interest, about $10,000 owed per household.

Supporters of the Hospital Levy have stated that the 25-year bond will coin cide with the depreciation schedule, therefore taxpayers will not be paying on the bond after it is depreciated out. If this is true, why is the current depreciation schedule expiring when we still have 14 years to pay on the 2003 $5.9 million capital improvement bond? Depreciation is a means to conserve funds for replacement of depreciable assets. Why are we using deprecation as operating capital and levying money from the taxpayers to replace depreciable assets? Common depreciation on hospital capital improvements and equipment is normally10-15 years. Deprecation on buildings is normally 40 years.

There is currently a wait list for the Booker Nursing home because there are insufficient beds to serve the community. Perhaps the Hospital Board should invest in the current need - adding beds to Booker.

The Hospital and Booker Nursing Home are valuable assets to our community, however I am concerned that the current levy is only a short-term fix to a greater problem and is a hard pill to swallow.

-LESS-THAN-0096-Arthur B. Hall is a resident of Dayton and a member of the Dayton City Council.-GREATER-THAN-0096-