$7 Million Paid Back to Hospital Will Force Cuts: Bolingbrook Officials

Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital insists that since it opened in 2008 and started paying property taxes "under protest," it planned to recoup the millions it paid from Bolingbrook's taxing bodies. 

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Now that the hospital has received tax-exempt status, some Bolingbrook officials said they did not anticipate paying back the $7 million the hospital is asking for. 

Officials from both the Bolingbrook Park District and Fountaindale Public Library told the Bolingbrook Reporter the news came as a surprise. Both groups plan to pay back the taxes from their general funds, and the extra expense will affect their long-term goals, they said. 

Fountaindale Public Library will need to pay back $288,065, according to the Bolingbrook Reporter. “It is money we did not anticipate having to spend and it will affect our mid-term and long-term goals,” Fountaindale Executive Director Paul Mills told the Reporter. 

The Bolingbrook Park District needs to pay back $333,332. “We did not plan for this but we will abide by the court ruling and pay the hospital using our general fund,” Bolingbrook Park District Executive Director Ron Oestreich told the Reporter. “We will take necessary steps to be more cognizant of some of the expenditures for 2013, 2014 and 2015."

The village of Bolingbrook needs to pay back $456,479.

Valley View School District 365U did not receive property taxes from Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital this year and will need to repay $3.6 million. That will have "a substantial impact on programming," Assistant Superintendent Gary Grizaffi told the Bolingbrook Reporter. 

"Moving forward, we'd be okay with the idea that they're now tax-exempt," Grizaffi said at last week's board meeting. "Going back really leaves us high and dry." 

Bolingbrook’s taxing bodies have three years to pay back the money. 

Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital Rick Mace recently wrote to the hospital's board of directors that county government leaders are the hospital's partners, and "we have full confidence they will work expeditiously on this effort."