Editorials & Other Articles

Uncle Joe

(58,366 posts) Thu Aug 20, 2015, 09:39 PM Aug 2015

What a 1987 Tax Battle Says About Bernie Sanders

Burlington Mayor Bernie Sanders didn't attend the June 1987 press conference that opened with a bombshell. Assessor Rosaire Longe did his bidding, announcing that the city had sent a tax bill to the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont, the venerable institution on the hill now known as the University of Vermont Medical Center. The amount the Sanders administration sought from the hospital, which, as a charitable institution, had been considered tax-exempt: $2.9 million.

Spencer Knapp, the hospital's legal counsel then and now, was in the president's office when the hefty bill arrived. "Our jaws dropped to our chests," he recalled.

(snip)

"We took the view they didn't provide enough charitable care to qualify" for a tax exemption, Joseph McNeil, then city attorney, said in a recent interview. The hospital had provided $1.5 million in free care, but "much of what they were calling charitable care was really uncollectable debt," McNeil said. Translation: hospital bills that people couldn't pay.

(snip)

"He is all about building movements," said Keller, who worked for Sanders from 1981 to 1986. Bold initiatives, such as presenting a $2.9 million tax bill to the state's largest medical center, "draw attention to the possibilities," she said. Today, as Sanders crisscrosses the country in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Keller said, "His message to these crowds is, we have to build a movement ... a movement that will keep the pressure on, no matter who is president."

http://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/what-a-1987-tax-battle-says-about-bernie-sanders/Content?oid=2819309

There is much more on the link.

8 replies

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Highlight:

What a 1987 Tax Battle Says About Bernie Sanders (Original Post) Uncle Joe Aug 2015 OP

"He is not afraid to challenge the establishment..." RufusTFirefly Aug 2015 #1

Thanks for that tech3149 Aug 2015 #2

Makes me like Bernie even more. PatrickforO Aug 2015 #3

Which amount do Doctors include as a charitable deduction? daybranch Aug 2015 #4

Consider this story from the perspective of the GOP... Thor_MN Aug 2015 #5

K&R JEB Aug 2015 #6

Recommend KoKo Aug 2015 #7

Thanks for the kick and rec, KoKo. Uncle Joe Aug 2015 #8

RufusTFirefly

(8,812 posts)

1. "He is not afraid to challenge the establishment..."

Reply to Uncle Joe (Original post)

Thu Aug 20, 2015, 09:51 PM

Aug 2015

"He is not afraid to challenge the establishment, and he cares very deeply about ordinary Americans."

Fascinating article. Thanks for posting, Uncle Joe!

tech3149

(4,452 posts)

2. Thanks for that

Reply to Uncle Joe (Original post)

Thu Aug 20, 2015, 10:13 PM

Aug 2015

I've heard the story before but it's good to keep it in circulation.

PatrickforO

(14,577 posts)

3. Makes me like Bernie even more.

Reply to Uncle Joe (Original post)

Thu Aug 20, 2015, 11:39 PM

Aug 2015

Both his heart AND his head are in the right place.

daybranch

(1,309 posts)

4. Which amount do Doctors include as a charitable deduction?

Reply to Uncle Joe (Original post)

Fri Aug 21, 2015, 08:28 AM

Aug 2015

Is it the overstated billing they send the uninsured or the much smaller amount they would accept from insurance companies in the normal discourse of business? Have you ever considered that if a doctor can bill and deduct at 5 times the rate insurance would pay, and if he is at a more than 20 percent tax bracket, then he actually makes a good profit on each uninsured patient?
If someone knows doctors and their tax returns do not work this way, please explain? If they do work this way, maybe we need to change the process to remove the tax subsidy?

Thor_MN

(11,843 posts)

5. Consider this story from the perspective of the GOP...

Reply to Uncle Joe (Original post)

Fri Aug 21, 2015, 09:03 AM

Aug 2015

"Sanders sent an unprecedented 2.9 million dollar tax bill to a non profit hospital. How much would he raise YOUR taxes? Sanders. Wrong on Taxes, Wrong for America. The message paid for by the 1%"

That is the type of thing we will be seeing when the right wing attack machine opens up on Sanders. I like his policies, but he has been pretty much immune/ignored as an Independent all these years. If he wins the nomination, he is in for a landslide of mud slinging.