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October 13, 2025
The Longview City Council voted 4-3 last week to repeal a decades-old tax exemption for PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center, ending the nonprofit hospital’s long break from the city’s business and occupation tax.
The decision adds roughly $336,000 a year to the city’s revenue after the council agreed to exempt $20 million of the hospital’s income to soften the impact. St. John reported $628 million in patient revenue and a $14.6 million operating profit in 2024.
Hospital CEO Kendall Sawa urged the council to keep the exemption, saying the hospital provides millions in charity care and grants each year. Sawa said the new tax could reduce those contributions.
The change is expected to help close the cities’ $4 million budget shortfall projected for 2027 and 2028. the exemption, created in the 1970s, was originally granted because St. John is a nonprofit.
Councilwomen Mary Alice Wallis, Ruth Kendall, Angie Wean, and Kalei Lafave voted for the repeal, while Mayor Spencer Boudreau and Councilmen Erik Halvorson and Keith Young opposed it.
The new tax takes effect July 1st at the start of St. John’s fiscal year.
The city and PeaceHealth are still determining how much the hospital owes in discovered unpaid B&O taxes on outpatient services going back to 2010.
