FAIRFIELD-SUISUN, CALIFORNIA
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy speaks on June 14, 2018, in Monmouth Park in Oceanport, New Jersey. (Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)
New Jersey may be the first state to impose per-bed fees on nonprofit hospitals for municipal services
New Jersey lawmakers approved an unusual measure last week that requires many nonprofit hospitals to pay per-bed fees to their local governments, while preserving their increasingly contested property-tax exemptions.
The legislation, which requires hospitals to pay a fee of $3 a day for each licensed bed, is in response to a landmark 2015 New Jersey Tax Court ruling involving Morristown Medical Center that “the operation and function of nonprofit hospitals do not meet the criteria for property tax exemption” under state law. A 300-bed hospital subject to the fee would pay $328,500 a year.