‘Corporate Bullying’ by Luminant May Shutter Glen Rose Community Hospital

In an ongoing effort to dramatically reduce its property taxes, Texas’ biggest utility may be on the brink of forcing a community hospital in Somervell County to close. In July, the Observer published an in-depth look at how Luminant, which owns a portfolio of coal and nuclear power plants, is waging a six-county legal campaign to force local appraisal districts to slash the appraisals on the plants. Nowhere are the stakes higher than in Somervell County — home of Comanche Peak nuclear power plant, about 75 miles southwest of Dallas. The power plant supplies 80 percent of the property taxes in the county.

Luminant is suing the Somervell County Appraisal District, claiming the plant’s value is only $450 million — a little more than one-sixth of the appraisal district’s $2.4 billion valuation. Under state law, Luminant only has to pay taxes on the $450 million while the two sides fight it out in court. That’s squeezing the community hospital, school district and county government. In 2015 alone, the Glen Rose Medical Center, which is funded through a hospital tax district, lost $2.4 million in revenue.

“This is corporate bullying at its worst,” said hospital board chairman Ron Hankins, a lifelong resident of Glen Rose. “They are in the process of crushing this county.”

Luminant sued the local appraisal district last year over the value of Comanche Peak. The case was decided in district court in March, when a state district judge upheld the appraisal district’s valuation of the plant. Luminant has appealed. The disputed taxes do not have to be paid while the appeal is ongoing, which could last until late 2017.

Read more: https://www.texasobserver.org/the-community-hospital-in-glen-rose-may-close-because-of-corporate-bullying-by-luminant/