TRAVERSE CITY -- Lyle Reed wants Munson Medical Center to build a new cancer center, but not by diverting $5.7 million in local property taxes currently designated for other public services.
"If there was a millage on the ballot to build a cancer center I would support it," Reed said. "But people didn't vote these millages in to be captured. In my mind it's being stolen for a parking deck."
Reed was among more than a dozen people who voiced concerns during a Wednesday public hearing about a plan by Grand Traverse County's Brownfield Authority to capture 99 percent of property taxes paid by the Copper Ridge development to build a parking deck for Munson.
County commissioners didn't agree with Reed and voted 8-1 to reimburse Munson if it builds a parking deck to serve a cancer center at Copper Ridge in Garfield Township. Commissioner Christine Maxbauer opposed the plan.
"Forty percent of (Copper Ridge's commercial area) is covered in black top for parking, and is that the best use of our land," asked county board Chairman Addison Wheelock Jr. "A parking deck is a good thing to have anywhere."
The amount of taxes being diverted for the parking deck is such a small amount compared to what's collected countywide that "it's not worth arguing about," Commissioner Larry Inman said.
The brownfield authority approved the proposal in October. The plan called for capturing up to $9 million from nine different government organizations through 2023. Brownfield authority Director Jean Derenzy said she now estimates Munson will be repaid for parking decks costs before 2020.
Ralph Soffredine serves on both the brownfield authority and Traverse City commission. He said agencies such as the Grand Traverse Pavilions and county Commission on Aging are doing fine financially and don't need taxes from Copper Ridge.
But resident Geraldine Green noted voters recently agreed to raise the millage rate for the Commission on Aging to meet demand. The county board's vote will cause her "to think twice" before supporting any future millage requests.
Munson Medical Center President Ed Ness said he didn't have an opinion on residents' concerns about how taxes are used.
"That's a decision for the brownfield authority, Garfield Township and (county) board to make," Ness said. "My interest is in piecing together health care services for this community."
More than a dozen project supporters, mainly doctors and investors in Copper Ridge, spoke at the hearing and indicated a publicly funded parking deck was key to making the $40 million cancer center a reality.
The deck is an important factor that takes away "some of the barriers" of building at Copper Ridge, Ness said.
Ness hopes to wrap a study of the cancer center's feasibility and present it to the Munson board before summer.
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