An unidentified meeting participant announced on Dec. 12 that the Union County Hospital, operated by Deaconess, applied for and was granted tax-exempt status by the State of Illinois, a change that will remove the facility from the county's property tax rolls and reduce the county's equalized assessed value (EAV) by about $1,300,000.

The announcement came during the board's regular session when "Speaker 2" said, "the Union County Hospital or Deaconess that that took over it applied for tax exempt status with the state of Illinois." That change, Speaker 2 said, "decreases our EAV, which is basically our estimated assessed value, by 1,300,000." The speaker added the EAV is roughly "33 and a third percent" of assessed value.

Speaker 2 told the board the hospital has asked the county for refunds of taxes paid for multiple prior years; the speaker could not recall whether the request covered three or five years. "They have also asked for a refund of their taxes that they've paid for the last I can't remember if if I was told 3 years or 5 years," Speaker 2 said. He said the hospital made a similar request in Williamson County, which officials there denied.

To resist refund demands, Speaker 2 said the county has engaged counsel who intervened in Williamson County. "Brett Barkey got involved for Williamson County, sent them some letters, and they stopped the request," Speaker 2 said, adding that the same counsel has been asked to send letters on Union County's behalf.

The board discussed next steps briefly but did not take a formal vote on the matter. Speaker 1 asked whether county staff had contacted external counsel; Speaker 2 confirmed staff contact: when Speaker 1 asked, "Have you already reached out to Rhett?" Speaker 2 replied, "Tammy did." No timetable or formal action plan for a legal challenge or administrative appeal was recorded in the transcript.

The session concluded with a motion to adjourn; the roll call in the available transcript recorded affirmative responses from Commissioner Marble, Commissioner Pitts, Mr. Miller and Mr. Bierstead before the record ended.

County officials did not provide additional written figures, a copy of the exemption determination, nor the exact number of prior years for which refunds were requested; those details were described as "not specified" during the discussion.