By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
Gov. Chris Christie walked into the lobby at Trinitas Medical Center — a nonprofit hospital that’s suing its own hometown of Elizabeth, after the cash-strapped city tried to make Trinitas pay property taxes. In a dozen similar lawsuits across New Jersey, municipalities claim these “nonprofit” hospitals actually make millions and should pay taxes to help pay for city services.
“I just believe that’s unnecessary and unwise. It only creates uncertainty for hospitals. It also creates the likelihood of different courts making different determinations,” Christie said.
Christie called for a moratorium — freezing all the lawsuits for two years — while a panel of experts hashes out a solution that would apply to all 62 of New Jersey’s nonprofit hospitals.
“It gives us time to come up, not just with a solution,” Christie said.
“This issue, and the recent uncertainty, has created a lot of adversarial situations between hospitals and their host communities. And we think this moratorium — coupled with a task force that thoughtfully studied the issue — is absolutely the right way to go,” said President and CEO of St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center, Kevin Slavin.
The initiative needs legislative approval and Senate President Steve Sweeney indicated he’d be willing to cooperate if the Assembly speaker agrees. But Vincent Prieto doesn’t, noting the governor vetoed one solution. Prieto opposes his moratorium.
“Municipalities are hurting. They should be getting those resources, not move the line down the field. And kicking the can down two years from now. We’ll have a new governor here,” Prieto said.
During a Q and A, Christie also talked about lead levels in the drinking water at Newark public schools, insisting there’s no need at this point to call in federal help. He urged parents not to panic.
“I am being briefed on a daily basis on what’s going on, and if there are decisions that need to be made, I will make them and continue to make them. But I also don’t want to intervene unnecessarily. The school district are the folks best-positioned to make these decisions,” he said.
As for GOP presidential primary candidate Donald Trump’s prediction that there’ll be riots if he’s denied the nomination, Christie said, “He didn’t mean a literal riot. He meant upset and turmoil, which I believe there would be at the convention, if the person with the most delegates is denied the nomination in some kind of backroom deal. I think that would be a problem for my party. If we’re going to start having do-overs here, I’ll take one! I’d like a do-over, too, you know?”
Meanwhile, without Prieto on board, a do-over is what Christie’s nonprofit hospital moratorium just might require. A lawyer representing several towns involved in lawsuits says he’s waiting to hear back from his client.