The Willapa Harbor Hospital Administration Board of Directors met on Monday, Jan. 9, for a special meeting pertaining to their tax rates in relation to the newly added Timberland Library tax district, which effectively takes seven cents per $1000 that the hospital would normally receive.
The solution to this issue was for the Willapa Harbor Hospital to purchase the Timberland Library System's taxing authority from the City of Raymond.
Acting Chairman Scott McDougal started the meeting, saying, "We are here to discuss one item, that's resolution 217-1 in regards to buying the taxing authority from the Timberland Library System."
The seven cents per $1000 stems from the Timberland Library System, a junior tax district, becoming newly recognized by the county as a district beginning in 2016. With the seven cents given to the library, the libary would have made $10,028, while the hospital would have ended up losing $47,000.
The county districts are all limited in the total tax that can be generated by the county and distributed to the districts to $5.90/$1000.
Each district entity has its own assessed valuation, the lowest of which is the hospital, and if another entity requesting tax money exceeds the limit, then the first account that the other entity's' request would cut into would be the hospital's.
The hospital board was able to figure out a method of keeping everybody happy, however, by paying the City of Raymond what they would have received in library district tax revenues, which ends up being $10,000.
After further discussion, the hospital board also determined that this would now become a yearly administrative task.
The board made a motion to buy the taxing authority from the City of Raymond and from the Timberland Library System. The motion was passed as all were in favor, and the meeting was then adjourned.