News Releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 28, 2008
Provena site loses tax status decision
An Urbana hospital's property tax exemption is once again in jeopardy.
In the ongoing saga over whether Provena Covenant Medical Center is a non-profit charitable institution, an Illinois state appeals court has reversed a lower court's decision that had allowed the hospital to keep its tax-exempt status in accordance with state laws.
A hospital spokeswoman said an appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court was an option. The appellate court justices sided with Illinois Department of Revenue Director Brian Hamer, who ruled two years ago that Provena Covenant's charity care was not enough to justify an exemption. In 2002, Hamer said, Provena Covenant's charity care was less than 1 percent of its revenue.
"If the operation of the property is businesslike and more characteristic of a place of commerce than a facility used primarily for religious purposes, the property is not exempt from taxation," Justice Thomas Appleton wrote in a unanimous opinion filed Tuesday by the three-judge 4th District Appellate Court panel in Springfield.