Letter: Trios, taxes

Kennewick General Hospital (KGH), aka Trios, started as a community hospital decades ago to serve a growing region.

As such, KGH was allowed to supplement funding with property taxes from the area it served, as this was needed to maintain reliable funding levels. Basically it functioned as a nonprofit entity.

Following bankruptcy, due to poor decisions made by the hospital board, the assets are now being sold to a ‘”for-profit” company.

During negotiations for this sale, the Trios board agreed to give the “for-profit” purchaser the tax money they collect from us.

Why? If this is truly a “for profit” entity, compared to what existed before the bankruptcy and sale, why do the taxpayers of Kennewick and a portion of Richland still need to supplement the funding thereby increasing their profit?

We the taxpayers, who have had no say in this transaction, need to put an end to underwriting a “for-profit” hospital.

I would think this is ripe for a class-action suit. Are there any attorneys interested in taking this on? I, for one, sure hope so.