PORT ANGELES — Olympic Medical Center will ask voters to quadruple property tax payments to the public hospital district in a special election that will end Aug. 19.
Hospital commissioners formally and unanimously approved the measure Wednesday, six days before the deadline to put it on the ballot.
For the owner of a $250,000 home — the cost of an average house in Hospital District 2 — tax paid to OMC would rise from $27.50 each year to $110, according to Eric Lewis, hospital administrator.
OMC’s tax revenue would grow from $836,060 to $3,344,241, an increase of more than $2.5 million, he said.
Currently, OMC taxes real property owners 11 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation — lowest among public hospitals in the state.
If approved, the amount would climb by 33 cents to 44 cents per $1,000 starting in 2009.
That amount would remain constant, costing owners more and producing more revenue as a property’s value climbs.
It would be permanent unless increased or reduced by voters.
The increase, if successful, will be the first since the original 11-cent levy was set in 1947 to create the public hospital district.
