Pottstown School District Superintendent on Tower Health Ruling: ‘I Look Forward to Them Paying Up’
Last week, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled that Tower Health–owned Pottstown Hospital (among three others in the region) is ineligible for property-tax exemptions. Harold Brubaker explained that decision’s implications in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The opinion represents a significant victory for Pottstown School District, one of the four school districts that have filed separate suits against Tower Health.
For the Pottstown School District action, the key finding of the Commonwealth Court was that Tower Health failed to meet a state property-tax exemption requirement, owing to its high level of executive pay tied to financial performance.
“We agree with the trial court’s characterization of the Tower Health executive salaries at issue as ‘eye popping,’” wrote Judge Christine Fizzano Cannon in her decision involving Pottstown School District.
The action overruled that of a Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas judge who granted the exemption to Pottstown Hospital in October 2021.
Pottstown superintendent Stephen Rodriguez was pleased with the result.
“This decision is validation that our concerns with Tower Health were appropriate,” he said. “They did not meet the measure of the law and should be paying their fair share of taxes, and I look forward to them paying up.”
Read more about the property-tax case in The P,hiladelphia Inquirer.
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An inside look at Pottstown Hospital in 2021.
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