Bigger clinic in Summit would boost tax revenue

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, January 31, 2007

By AMY RINARD

Summit - A larger Wilkinson clinic proposed in Aurora Health Care's revised and expanded plans for a $189 million medical center will mean additional property tax revenue for the town and all local taxing authorities, Town Chairman Len Susa said Tuesday.

The hospital portion of the 792,000-square-foot medical complex will be exempt from property taxes because the hospital is non-profit.

Town and Aurora officials are drafting an agreement under which Aurora will make payments in lieu of taxes to the town for the 110-bed hospital. The payments are intended to cover the town's cost for providing services, including fire protection, to the hospital.

But the Wilkinson Medical Clinic would be taxed as a profit-making business.

"Because the clinic is larger, it's going to be more valuable, and they'll pay more taxes," Susa said.

Aurora spokesman Jeff Squire said that when Aurora originally proposed its center in 2004, the clinic was to be 100,000 square feet. The new plan, delivered to the town Dec. 26, calls for a 180,000-square-foot clinic attached to the hospital.

Two years ago, the town estimated that the total property taxes paid on the clinic property would be about $300,000, using the tax rates then in effect for the town, Waukesha County, the Oconomowoc Area School District and Waukesha County Technical College.

Susa said no new estimate has been calculated of the taxes that would be paid on the larger clinic.

The complex, to be built at the southeast corner of I-94 and Highway 67, is expected to open in the summer of 2009, Aurora officials have said.

As soon as Feb. 15, the town Plan Commission could vote for the project and recommend that the Town Board grant a building permit.