UPMC: Tax Exempt Status Challenge Should Be Dismissed
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) --- It didn't take long for UPMC to ask a federal judge to toss out Mayor Ravenstahl's lawsuit against the health giant.
Just a week after the case was transferred from state to federal court, UPMC says the case should be dismissed altogether.
In an 11-page motion, UPMC claims the city did not follow the proper procedure to challenge its tax exempt status:
Statement from UPMC:
"[The city's lawsuit is] a targeted attack against UPMC [which] deliberately circumvented the entire administrative process required for the assessment and collection of city payroll taxes."
The legal wrangling began a month ago when Mayor Ravenstahl charged that UPMC it is not a purely public charity, does less than it should as a non-profit, and does not qualify for tax exemption under the Pennsylvania's so-called HUP test.
"When they had revenues of over $5.7 billion dollars-- to give less than two-percent back to my community is in my mind a clear failure of meeting one of the prongs of that HUP test," Mayor Ravenstahl says.
It's a claim strongly rejected by UPMC.
"We easily meet all five criteria for our tax exempt status. There's no question," says UPMC spokesman Paul Wood. "We contributed last year $622 million dollars in charity care and other charitable contributions to organizations in the city, Allegheny County, and around the region.
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