Despite tax-exempt status, Phoebe is third-highest taxpayer in Dougherty County

Editor’s Note: Second in a series of Albany Herald stories on taxes – who pays them and who doesn’t?

ALBANY – When The Albany Herald conducted a search circa 2015, it discovered that Dougherty County at that time had the highest percentage of untaxed properties among Georgia’s 159 counties.

Untaxed property in the county – including parcels owned by governments, educational institutions, health care facilities and religious entities – is still significantly higher than most Georgia counties, accounting for 24% of taxable property worth a staggering $1 billion.

The Hospital Authority of Dougherty County, the legal “owner” of properties obtained by Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany over the years, still has a list of dozens of properties – indeed, some 109 non-taxed parcels – worth $296,239,800, so when talk circles around the entities “not paying their fair share” of taxes, Phoebe’s name usually surfaces.

But hospital system President/CEO Scott Steiner says tax critics should not be so quick to castigate Phoebe.

“As it turns out, Phoebe pays the third-most among taxpayers in the county,” Steiner said. “We pay taxes on every property the hospital authority owns if that property isn’t being used for medical purposes.”

Indeed, in tax year 2025, Phoebe paid a total of $960,370 in property taxes, trailing only Georgia Power Co. ($2,782,559.87) and Sabal Trail Transmission LLC ($2,335,948.31). The fourth-largest taxpayer – Mitchell EMC – pays less than half of what Phoebe paid.

Steiner also pointed out that $552,676 in taxes paid in 2025 were voluntary payments in lieu of taxes (V-PILOT).

“When Phoebe purchased Palmyra Medical Center (in 2015), Palmyra was a for-profit hospital,” Steiner said. “Part of the agreement with the county at that time was to voluntarily pay taxes.”

In the 11 years since that agreement, Phoebe has voluntarily paid $6,327,779, outdistancing the other property taxes the hospital has paid ($4,219,478) during that time.

But some, for whom mistrust of Phoebe is ingrained (due primarily to events that took place before Steiner took over the running of the hospital), complain that there are all those properties just sitting there, taken off the tax rolls. What they don’t consider is that since he has taken over as CEO of the nonprofit hospital, Steiner has moved around 25 properties – through sales or donations – back onto the tax rolls.

“Look, if we don’t have medical services on a property, we pay taxes on it,” he said. “Most of the properties owned by Phoebe – around 95% – were purchased before I got here. I’m not questioning the purpose of purchasing those properties, because as CEO, I think it’s vital to look to the future and make sure that if the need arises for expansion, we have the property available to do so. I can’t say what that possible growth looked like before I got here.

“There are properties owned by the Hospital Authority now that I don’t see us needing in the foreseeable future. If the opportunity arises, and it makes sinse for the hospital, I think there will be every effort to sell or otherwise dispense of those properties.”

Steiner says there is another element of this taxpayer puzzle that most people don’t take into account: the indigent and charity care provided by the hospital. In 2025, that care amounted to $53.6 million, 53% of it ($28,433,000) supplied to citizens of Dougherty County.

“When you talk about indigent care provided by Phoebe, it amounts to a $53.6 million trade-off,” he said. “That goes all the way back to (Phoebe founder) Judge (Francis Flagg) Putney’s position that every person be treated at the hospital, no matter if that person had the ability to pay.

“This hospital is a billion-dollar property owned by the taxpayers of Dougherty County. We’re caretakers of that property, and one of our duties is to pay attention to what surrounds us. But we also have an obligation to care for the health of the people of the county. And we do so knowing that 20% of the people who come into our ER don’t have the ability to pay. And we’re going to lose money on another 60% of them.”

Steiner pauses, thinking about the implications.

“Tell me another business that’s going to do that,” he said. “Tell me another business that can operate under those conditions. But in health care, that’s the pact we’ve made.”