Corner House, Morris Co. Hospital get tax credits
By Joey Berlin
Originally published 02:27 p.m., July 3, 2008
Updated 02:27 p.m., July 3, 2008
Emporia’s Corner House and the Morris County Hospital Foundation have been awarded a combined $343,000 in community service tax credits from the Kansas Department of Commerce, the department announced Thursday.
The awards are part of $4.13 million in future tax credits the department of commerce issued to 24 Kansas nonprofit organizations that serve children and families. The department describes the Community Service Tax Credit Program as a major fundraising tool for these organizations.
For Corner House, the credits will be a source of funding for its new women’s and children’s treatment facility. In a campaign ending last summer, the organization raised $1.4 million to build an all-new building at 418 Market St., and a local foundation made a donation to purchase an adjacent building for expanded services.
Corner House Executive Director Sarah Riley said the organization decided to apply for the department of commerce tax credit to help cover renovation and startup costs on the second building.
“The facility that we built, it won’t necessarily allow for that type of home atmosphere or privacy that a mom and kiddos might need to have,” Riley said. “So the new facility will allow that, but it’ll still be what we are calling a part of our campus — close by, it’ll still have all the staff support that’s needed.”
Riley said the total cost of renovation and startup for the second building should be around $300,000 or slightly less. She said the $140,000 tax credits will provide about $280,000 toward the cost of the project.
“So we’re really hoping that we can get the total renovation and startup done for that cost,” she said. “We may have to earn a few extra dollars to complete the project.”
She said because the tax credit award runs through Dec. 31, 2009, part of Corner House’s obligation to the state is to have the project completed by that date.
The $203,000 credit for the Morris County Hospital Foundation is earmarked for two facets of a planned expansion of the Council Grove hospital’s technology: A new mammography machine and a new PACS system, which gives hospital personnel access to digital radiology images from anywhere in the hospital.
Carolina VonFeldt, executive director of the hospital, said hospital officials would meet with the department of commerce on July 16 for more detailed information on the tax credits and how the funding would be administered. She said she needed to learn more from the state firsthand before she could say more about the credits.
Businesses and individuals who contribute to approved projects for the 24 organizations would receive a 70 percent tax credit for projects in rural areas and a 50 percent credit for projects in non-rural areas.
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