The $4 million imbalance in Elmhurst’s proposed operating budget is caused by inflation (which increases the cost of goods, services and labor), mandated state programs (such as pension raises for police and fire) and the subprime meltdown (which has triggered our national economic slow down, resulting in lower retail sales tax revenues, an important source of city revenue). As a result, we are forecasting increased expenses and lower revenues and are left to deal with a budget imbalance.

The solutions are to either cut services, raise revenues or a combination of both.
On the positive side, there are a number of viable options: The General Fund has $12 million in the bank, and Elmhurst has an extremely high credit rating from the municipal bond rating agencies.

However, some aldermen are so desperate to balance the budget in the name of the taxpayer that despite viable and reasonable options, they are seeking revenue gains in the wrong place — by adding to the cost of health care. These aldermen are wielding excessive use of their official position to obtain a fee from Elmhurst Memorial Hospital.

They are demanding that the hospital pay for a small strip of street to be vacated by the city.

Requiring payment for a vacation from a public benefit, nonprofit institution is virtually unknown in Elmhurst history. The land in question is unused land the city never paid a dime for, land that is an essential part of the proposed new healthcare campus.

The hospital cannot be built without it. What choice does the hospital have? Pay up, or else these six aldermen will bring the new hospital to a halt.

There is a national health care crisis; costs are spiraling out of control. Anything government does that adds cost to health care adds to the financial burden of every American who pays for health care services.

Any amount of money the hospital is charged for this strip of unused street will inevitably be passed on to the most vulnerable of citizens, those dealing with illnesses and injuries who have no choice but to pay yet even more for health care because of a bad policy decision made by our local government in a misguided attempt to balance a budget.

These six aldermen have become so hungry for money that they would hold a proverbial gun to the head of a charitable nonprofit institution, a new state-of-the-art medical facility that will potentially benefit every one of our 43,000 residents. Elmhurst Memorial Hospital annually donates tens of millions in charitable care to our community, more than $73 million last year alone, and yet these aldermen demand more money or threaten to halt the construction of this desperately needed medical facility.

This new hospital will generate $1.4 million every year in new tax revenue for decades to come — is this not enough? Furthermore, five of these aldermen had previously voted to sustain and accept the vacation of the land in question at no charge — a good faith agreement they refused to honor when they recently voted down approving the ordinance itself.

As a responsible community where “character counts,” we need to ask ourselves if this is the kind of ruthless profit-at-any-cost policy we should embrace. Aldermen Moriarty, Bram, Shea, Lomnicki, Szczepaniak and Gutenkauf, I ask you to reconsider your position on needlessly adding yet more cost to health care.

Alderman Gutenkauf, is it not you who expressed concern over the loss of our humanity or does humanity not count when profit is involved?

Carol Snyder, Elmhurst