Hospital a sticking point at TM

Norwood Town Meeting convened on Monday, May 11 and got through a good number of articles on its first night.

That’s not to say the possibly most talked about article got heard – the Public Safety Override Town Meeting vote will have to wait until Thursday. However, the Town has already set aside June 15 for a ballot election on the topic, should it pass on May 14.

The two big issues on Monday were the budget and the hospital. For the Norwood Hospital, Town Meeting members voted 108-74, with three abstentions, to allocate $300,000 in free cash for legal costs associated with taking Norwood Hospital by eminent domain.

Town Manager Tony Mazzucco stipulated that the Town is not in the healthcare business, and the tactic has two aims. The first is to pressure the hospital owner, Medical Properties Trust (MPT), into selling the property on its own. The idea is that while eminent domain does allow the property owner “fair market value” for its taken property, it’s likely not as much as the owner could negotiate with another private party. So it’s an incentive for MPT to stop sitting on its heels and sell the property, so a new operator can get in there and resume operations that generated an estimated $2 billion annually in the local economy before it closed. And provided healthcare for many.

The other reason for the taking, Mazzucco said, is that by taking the property from MPT, the Town could separately sell the property to an operator without negotiations from MPT, creating a price more companies may be able to live with. Mazzucco , State Rep. John Rogers and Congressman Stephen Lynch said at Town Meeting on Monday that MPT appears to be waiting for the best deal it can get, and not negotiating in good faith with the at least eight reported parties interested in the site the hospital uses.

“We did have interest from about eight different entities – hospital networks – interested in coming in,” Lynch said. “We’ve been in negotiations back and forth with (MPT) for a while, but they weren’t really motivated.”

“The (Norwood Hospital) Task Force has been looking at how to get a property transaction, and this is where we are,” Mazzucco said. “They’re not selling the property, they don’t want to negotiate with us on the property. If we don’t move forward with an eminent domain taking, it’s going to sit until they decide they want to sell it.”

“Negotiations with a major not-for-profit operator broke down when MPT walked away from the table after asking for $250 million, and came back to that table and asked for $250 million,” Rogers said. “To me, that’s bad faith negotiations. The speaker of the house recently asked me why they would do that. Why are they playing this waiting game that our citizens can’t afford to play. Because our citizens are suffering, and our citizens are dying. We’re not playing games. The answer was that this company is so large, it owns more than 360 properties worldwide, in 30 other states here in the U.S., and in nine countries in three different continents. They can afford to wait out; we cannot.”

Rogers was speaking to the state’s effort to take the hospital by eminent domain, which Mazzucco said is running “in parallel” with the Town’s efforts.

“We’re trying to hedge our bets so if the state decides it doesn’t want to act, we can move forward,” he said.

Rogers gave an update on the state legislation, which he said is moving at a glacial pass by any standard, other than a legislative one. He said he is encouraged by the fact that the House Ways and Means Committee is taking this legislation at the same speed as it is the state budget.

“And that’s the only bill of the 7,000 we see every year we have to pass,” he said.

Though it should be noted the budget needs to be passed, it hasn’t been passed on time in over a decade. And if the eminent domain legislation isn’t passed by the end of the session on July 31, it’s essentially dead, as it has to start all over through the legislative process. Because it’s needed for the state to function, the budget can come in late. It’s doubtful the hospital legislation would see such laxity.

The Town vote on this was pretty close, as many felt it was spending money where the Town might not have to. Many felt they don’t think the time gained by doing this now, as opposed to after the potential failure of the state legislation, is hasty. Mazzucco said any funds not expended would go back into the general fund, and pointed out that time is not on the Town’s side when it comes to the hospital. Even if an operator took over tomorrow, it would be another 18 months of construction until a new hospital could come online, as an operator has to be the one to finish the building.

Another concern was that of a lack of buy-in from the surrounding catchment area towns, basically other towns that will benefit from the hospital reopening. Mazzucco pointed out, however, that MPT is only paying taxes to Norwood, and if a new non-profit operator came in, any payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement would only go to Norwood. He also added that getting that money out of other municipalities would be as tough and slow, if not more so, than the current process of finding a new operator.

In other news, Town Meeting members voted 135 to 45, with two abstentions, to fund the budget. The Town is currently facing a budget deficit of about $7 million a year, and asked for $7,361,784 to plug the gap, for this year.

Many Town Meeting members spoke against the plug.

Town Meeting member Brian Gunning went through the average tax bills of Norwood residents, starting in 2017 when it was around $4,600, then up to 2020, which was $5,367, in 2024 was $6,848, and in 2026, when the average apparently hit $7,065.

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“It seems to me, based on the revenues the Finance Commission has listed, we don’t have a revenue problem in Norwood, we have a spending problem,” he said. “And tough decisions need to be made, not transfers and accounting magic. We have a structural deficit, and someone in this Town has to stand up on behalf of the taxpayers and demand accountability that we adjust our budget accordingly… How long is this going to go on?”

Gunning walked out of the Coakley Auditorium, was overheard saying, “Stop spending money! Bye!”, relinquished his voting clicker and Town Meeting member badge, and left Town Meeting early.

Most Town Meeting members stayed for the duration of the meeting, to conduct the business for which the meeting was held.

“I think it’s time we bit the bullet,” said member Karen Curran. “I know it’s painful, it’s very painful, but we can’t get to 2028 and have a $10 million override. That’s where we’re heading. So my questions to you are: Is there a definitive plan to replace the use of free cash, and why don’t we simply bite the bullet and not transfer free cash and reduce the budget this year?”

FinCom Chair Eric Fleming said the reason is Prop 2.5, which limits municipal property tax increases to 2.5 percent every year, and does not allow municipalities to keep up with inflation. The limit is 2.5 percent, no matter what. Mazzucco had said previously the 2.5 percent increase, at least this year, was completely eaten up by state health insurance cost increases, not to mention all the other mandated costs Norwood has to pay to be in compliance with the state.

“At the end of the day, it comes down to a simple question, and this is a question that’s going to be asked on a regular basis, more or less forever: ‘Do you want to raise your taxes, or do you want to cut your services?’” Fleming said. “In the budget book we presented an analysis of what that might look like this year, of what taking $7 million out of the budget might do, and I would suggest that you, for one thing, compare $7 million to the cost of some things like the library or the Board of Health, the Recreation Department, you’ll find it’s less than all of those.”

The reduction analysis – HTTPS://GVIMES.LINK/REDUCT – showed big hits to public safety, including reduced detective capacity, reduction of school resource officers, reduction of ambulance availability (and associated revenue), and a reduction in overnight staffing. Education also sees a big hit, as it’s 59.6 percent of the total cut, and includes reductions in non-mandated transportation, loss of extracurriculars, pay-for-play fees for athletics and arts, and the reduction or elimination of the afterschool program.

Town Meeting continues on Thursday.