Answer Man: Where did windfall from HCA property taxes go? Was the Blue Ridge Parkway overrun with northern lights tourists? • Asheville Watchdog (2024)

Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies, and the real answers:

Question: When HCA bought Mission Hospital, one of the selling points was that Mission would no longer be a nonprofit, so its properties would be taxed at market value, benefiting the city’s coffers. So, how much property tax money has HCA paid on the properties it owns in Asheville? I’d like to know how much money they’ve paid each year since the deal happened. Also, the city always seems to have money shortfalls, despite getting all this extra money. So what have they done with the money?

My answer: I’m pretty sure the city has followed my sure-fire financial advice and put all of its extra money into lottery tickets. Hey, you can’t argue with odds of one in 297 gajillion.

Real answer: Considering the city of Asheville seems to have trouble keeping its pools and auditoriums open, and Buncombe County has a projected $28.5 million budget shortfall this year, as BPR reported earlier this month, it’s clear this money has not been the panacea the area hoped for.

Spokespersons for the city of Asheville and Buncombe County both said property tax revenue from Mission Hospital properties goes into their respective general funds, serving an array of needs.

“That fund is used to provide funding for various departments, including police, fire, parks and recreation and public works among others,” city spokesperson Kim Miller said via email.

The sale of Mission to HCA Healthcare for $1.5 billion, which closed in February 2019, did mean that the properties of the formerly nonprofit operation were no longer exempt from property taxes. And HCA has paid a lot of taxes — nearly $40 million since 2020, according to the Buncombe County Tax Assessment office.

In the city, taxes go to the city and to Asheville City Schools. Here’s a breakdown for the past four years:

• 2020 — City of Asheville levy: $4,295,039. Schools levy: $1,020,184
• 2021 — City of Asheville levy: $3,877,508. Schools levy: $880,674
• 2022 — City of Asheville levy: $3,835,469. Schools levy: $880,795
• 2023 — City of Asheville levy: $3,795,714. Schools levy: $875,086

These are the figures for Buncombe County taxes derived from Mission properties:

• 2020 — $5,339,415
• 2021 — $4,729,498
• 2022 — $4,678,576
• 2023 — $4,724,692

The hospital properties also generate a small amount of tax revenues for two local fire districts in the county and the Town of Woodfin, but as that is well under $50,000, I’m not going into detail here.

In the city, Miller said the extra funds initially were “somewhat like a bonus” to the city’s budget, but now they are “baked into our annual budget revenue considerations.”

While these dollar amounts are sizable, the city and county are huge organizations, and their budgets reflect that. The county website notes, “The total adopted operating budget for Buncombe County in fiscal year 2024 is $609,494,150.”

The general fund is the largest of the county’s funds, and it’s the main operating fund. For the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, the general fund budget total is $430.4 million, which was an increase of 5.2 percent from the previous budget. “The increase is driven by new positions, spending on education, and investment in Buncombe County Commissioner FY2024 Priorities,” the county website states.

The city’s current budget, which also ends June 30, totals $254.8 million, with a general fund of $172.7 million.

Question: Does the Blue Ridge Parkway have any way of knowing how many vehicles were on it over the weekend of the northern lights? On that Saturday, from what I’ve seen, it was just crazy, quite possibly the busiest it has ever been. I saw traffic there from a peak in Montreat and have seen a photo of the cars from Craggy Dome.

My answer: Thanks for bringing up this incredibly sore point in the Boyle household, as we completely missed the great northern lights show of May 10. Look, we were both tired, mainly because of a certain basset hound who keeps waking us up half the night like a newborn, and I thought the reports of a possibly great light show were probably overblown, ‘cause these alleged celestial wonders usually are. Plus, I wanted to swim at 7 a.m. on Saturday. (This body doesn’t just happen by itself, you know.) So when my wife asked if we ought to go up to the Parkway, I kind of poo-pooed the idea, a decision which I will now forever rue (like not buying Apple stock back in the day because who cares if your phone can search the internet, too?). As we know from all your incredible photos, it was an absolutely phenomenal show, maybe even better than what you see if you actually go to the Scandinavian countries where you can regularly see the lights, and which I will now probably have to shell out $10,000 to do because apparently this is a bucket list item for my wife and she missed it, all because I wanted to swim in the morning, or at least that’s how history is recording it, even though she was in her jammies at 10 p.m. and looking pretty dang tired, in my estimation. So yeah, it’s a sore point. Did I mention that?

Real answer: “We are aware of high evening visitation across the Parkway (the weekend of the northern lights) and (were) encouraged that there were no incidents,” Parkway spokesperson Leesa Brandon told me via email. “We certainly appreciate the public’s approach to recreating responsibly while also enjoying this amazing sight.”

In short, the Parkway did not have any counters deployed that could’ve measured traffic with precision.

On a personal note, I can tell you first-hand the Parkway traffic was really heavy on Saturday, May 11, when the much-vaunted northern lights failed to appear at all. As in, NOT AT ALL. If you don’t believe me, ask my wife, who wore actual pants when we drove up there that night.

Did I mention I’m probably going to have to shell out for a trip to Iceland or Norway so my wife can see the damn lights? Please visit my Gofundme page for this endeavor. It could save my marriage.

Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Got a question? Send it to John Boyle atjboyle@avlwatchdog.org or 828-337-0941. His Answer Man columns appear each Tuesday and Friday. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go toavlwatchdog.org/donate.

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