A group that has been pushing for a new Dayton public hospital is celebrating after residents voted in favor of a 1 mill property tax for the endeavor.
Bishop Richard Cox is president of the Clergy Community Coalition, which has been pushing for years for a new public hospital to serve West Dayton.
According to Cox, it has been a challenging journey.
"It was a struggle. It was oftentimes discouraging. It was oftentimes frightful, but it was necessary," Cox said.
What happens next
The new levy will generate about $20 million over the next ten years. This new tax will cost the owner of a $100,000 home $35 a year. The levy will be collected starting in January 2027.
The levy language that was approved calls for a facility with an emergency room, lab services, a maternity ward and doctors' offices.
It says an 11-member board needs to be formed with the city’s mayor, currently mayor-elect Shenise Turner- Sloss, as its president.
The Clergy Community Coalition expects two of its members to get a seat.
No specific site has been identified yet for a new public hospital to be built.
Funding
It’s not clear where more money could come from that would be needed to fully fund a new public hospital. The city of Dayton did not return requests for comment from WYSO by deadline.
City Commissioner Matt Joseph said at a previous hearing about the levy that he was uncomfortable with the vagueness of the proposal.
"When we go out for a tax increase here in the city, we hold ourselves to a really high standard. We make sure everybody knows exactly where the money's going to go, what the plan is, what our goals are for the money," Joseph said. "You lay out the partnerships, you lay out where the dollars are going to go, you set out the goals and how they're going to be measured. This did not have most of those elements.”
Supporters of the levy have said that the $20 million that the levy will raise will be seed money for land and construction.
Organizers previously said once there’s a levy approved, they believe others will join in as partners after they see a solid commitment from Dayton's leadership and residents.
Cox said after the board is created, the group will share more information.
"We have four particular lots we would share with the board. We then will reach out to the county, to the state, which we've already begun negotiating with," Cox said. "Then we will talk about getting private donors, foundations to get this economic engine started and on the move."
