Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Health & Hospital Corporation Still Won't Release Audited Financial Statements

So the Marion Co. Health & Hospital Corporation begins its effort to gain public support to build a new $754 million hospital by getting one state lawmaker to slip into the state budget in the dark of night a provision to allow for a costly special election this November to consider a referendum that authorizes it to borrow the money needed to build the hospital. It prepares misleading referendum language that continues to keep people in the dark as to what is being proposed, such as the amount of money that is being borrowed, the annual cost of borrowing the money and where the money will come from to pay for the debt. And just to ensure complete darkness, the HHC refuses to make publicly available its past audited financial statements. Yet it can take the time to illegally use taxpayer resources to lobby for passage of this referendum, including a link from its own website (still absent of any audited financial statements) to a website promoting approval of the referendum that once again is long on propaganda and short on facts. Gee, if I didn't know better, I would think someone is trying to hide something very important from the public. That's pretty scary when you consider the HHC is a publicly-owned organization that is funded with taxpayer dollars. And these people expect you to believe they can borrow three quarters of a billion dollars without raising taxes one dime.

UPDATE: There audited financial statements for HHC from 2004 to 2007 can be found at this hidden link on their website. You would never find these if you weren't told that the link existed, notwithstanding the snarky remarks of the commenter who provided the link.

4 comments:

  1. The standard 'Mushroom Corp' approach is once again being employed by our 'public' entities. Public in name only.

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  2. http://www.hhcorp.org/cafr_budgets.htm

    The health and hospitol budgets are available at the link above.

    These were posted the day Daniel Lee did BizBuzz on Wishard.

    Is this blog opinion only? Or do you also do reporting and contact sources?

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  3. Sorry, but I linked to the Star site that very evening and that link wasn't there. Lee specifically asked Gutwein during the interview if the HHC intended to put them online. The link was not there when the story was first posted. The link is hidden on the HHC's website currently. If you didn't know the link existed, you couldn't find it by navigating their website.

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  4. Thanks for your response. I don’t think the link was ever posted on the Star site. But I do know it was on the HHC site the evening of the Biz Buzz story.

    I don’t think it is accurate to say the information is hidden. There are 4 navigation links on the HHC home page: General Information, Clinics, Upcoming Events and Services. I went to General Information (the only one that made sense) and right there on the main screen was the link:

    View Annual Financial Statements and the Current Year Budget.

    I like reading your opinions and assume you want to be accurate and fair. I share your cynicism of government. Personally, I am impressed with Wishard and the work they do. I listened to Garrison yesterday and Greg was clearly supporting a new Wishard. You might think he is drinking the Kool-Aid too, but when everyone is in favor of it, maybe it deserves another look. In any event, it deserves accuracy and fairness.

    Thanks,
    Jordan

    ReplyDelete