Supporters say the Issue 9 levy measure will help bring a full-service hospital to a section of the city that has been a health care desert since the closure of Good Samaritan Hospital in 2018. The proposed 10-year levy would generate about $2 million annually.
Critics say the one-mill levy will generate a tiny fraction of the funding needed to construct and operate a highly complicated and expensive medical facility.
Opponents say a new hospital could cost hundreds of millions of dollars or more in coming decades, and the city does not have the resources or capabilities to oversee a medical facility that would have to provide lots of services.
A group called the Clergy Community Coalition has worked for a couple of years to get a public hospital levy measure on the ballot in Dayton. After a couple of failed attempts, the coalition eventually obtained enough signatures from Dayton residents to get the measure before voters.
Coalition members have repeatedly decried Premier Health’s decision to close Good Sam hospital in northwest Dayton, and they claim the city can fill the void that closure created with a new public hospital.
Nancy Kiehl, a member of the Clergy Community Coalition, says the goal is to use the $2 million in levy revenue to leverage funding and commitments from other partners to move forward with a hospital project. She said capital and operating funds could come from county, state and federal sources.
But critics like Dayton City Commissioners Chris Shaw and Matt Joseph say the levy proposal is irresponsible because the backers have no real plan to make the project succeed. Joseph said it’s wrong and disappointing that the people of Dayton may get the impression that they will get a new hospital when there is no chance that will happen with such little funding.
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