EARL WATT
• Leader & Times
Southwest Medical Center is owned by Seward County as one of the last county-owned hospitals in Kansas, and according to a recent opinion by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, it has been operating without proper financial oversight by the Seward County Commission.
Legal counsel for Southwest Medical Center Shirla McQueen and former Seward County Counsel Nathan Foreman sought an opinion from the Attorney General’s office when questions arose on why SWMC did not present its budget to the Seward County Commission for approval.
The budget of the hospital is about twice that of the rest of Seward County and is about the same as the entire USD No. 480 school district.
According to Pro Publica, in 2024, the expenditures for SWMC were $81.8 million while the income was $76.7 million, which is a loss of about $5 million.
Should SWMC ever run out of reserve funds to cover the shortfalls, it would be forced to request a tax levy to subsidize its expenditures.
But the Seward County Commission has never approved any of those expenditures or budget levels in the past.
But that will change with the AG opinion.
The findings of the AG pointed out that the commissioners appoint a non-elected board to oversee SWMC, but that board cannot unilaterally approve its own budget even if SWMC isn’t requesting tax dollars to fund the operation.
“The Seward County Board of County Commissioners appoints Southwest Medical Center’s hospital board,” the opinion stated. “K.S.A. 19-4607(c) requires non-elected hospital boards to submit a proposed budget and the portion of the budget requested to be funded by a tax under K.S.A. 19-4606 to the county commissioners. K.S.A. 19-4610(a) directs that a hospital board shall have control over all expenditures, except those raised by revenue bonds. These statutes do not conflict, as they apply to two different subjects. K.S.A. 19-4607(c) directs a non-elected hospital board to submit a proposed budget to the county commissioners regardless of whether the hospital board is requesting any portion be funded by a tax under K.S.A. 19-4606. Thus, K.S.A. 19-4607(c) requires SWMC to submit its proposed budget to the Seward County Board of County Commissioners each year for approval.”
That requirement will allow the commissioners to decide whether or not the budget for SWMC is acceptable. For example, if the SWMC Board wants to spend more than it is planning to receive by using its reserve funds, the commission could either approve that budget or direct the SWMC board to produce a budget that will not spend reserve funds.
The AG provided the opinion Feb. 23, so any future budgets or expenditures of SWMC will have to be approved by the Seward County Commission, who has the fiscal responsibility and authority, according to Kobach.
