CCB MEDIA PHOTO
Hyannis Fire Station.
HYANNIS – The Hyannis Fire District plans to approach the CEO of Cape Cod Healthcare about paying an annual fee similar to a property tax. The fee is called a payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, and is typically negotiated between municipalities and nonprofit entities whose properties are exempt from taxes.
The discussion was an agenda item at the fire commissioner’s meeting last Thursday at the Hyannis Fire Station headquarters.
Peter Cross, chairman of the Hyannis Fire District Board of Fire Commissioners, said the district provides a lot of services to Cape Cod Hospital.
“As a fire district, we serve a great number of people outside of our taxable domain,” he said.
Cross said Cape Cod Healthcare owns 27 properties in the village of Hyannis.
Fire Commissioner Victor Skende said he has been researching the issue.
“I was looking through the town assessor’s site and I see about $75 million worth of property that Cape Cod Hospital has. Some of it is taxed, not all of it. Some is taxed and some is tax-exempt.
Fire Commissioner Demetrius Atsalis said he talked to Henri Rauschenbach, a former legislator who is now a lobbyist for Cape Cod Healthcare.
Atsalis said Rauschenbach asked him what size payment the fire district was looking to get from Cape Cod Healthcare.
“He asked for a number in my head. I didn’t give a number because we should all talk about what we’re looking for,” he said.
Atsalis said Cape Cod Healthcare pays the town of Falmouth about $46,000 a year in PILOT fees for its Falmouth Hospital property. The fee was negotiated to cover the assisted living and long term care facilities that are operated on Cape Cod Healthcare land near Falmouth Hospital.
Cape Cod Healthcare does not pay any PILOT fees to the town of Barnstable.
A bill has been filed repeatedly in the Massachusetts legislature by State Representative Stephen Kulik of Worthington that would require nonprofits to pay 25 percent of the taxes they would owe if not for the tax-exempt status to the municipality where they are located.
By LAURA M. RECKFORD, CapeCod.com News Editor
Taxes on 75 million in property? Nice chunk of change. Would rather see Cape Cod Healthcare invest that money in developing a trauma team so Cape trauma victims arent sent all over New England.