Gazette Daily News Briefing, August 8
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for August 8, 2023.
According to the National Weather Service, it will be mostly sunny in the Cedar Rapids area Tuesday with a high near 85 degrees. There will be a chance of rain late Tuesday, with the likelihood of rain increasing as we head further into Wednesday morning.
The University of Iowa has signed a letter of intent for $20 million to acquire “substantially all the operating facilities and key assets” of Iowa City’s Mercy Hospital.
Mercy Iowa City filed for bankruptcy protection Monday in hopes of preserving continuity of care for patients and employment opportunities for physicians and staff members.
The proposed $20 million purchase price is a far cry from a $605 million package that UI Health Care offered in 2022 to take ownership and make Mercy the “centerpiece” of a new UIHC “community division,” an investigation by The Gazette found. That deal never materialized as Mercy continued an on-again, off-again relationship with Des Moines-based MercyOne, which began managing Mercy Iowa City in 2017.
Mark Toney — who Mercy recently appointed as its chief restructuring officer — said a bondholder’s recent demand for a court-appointed receiver played into its moves. Mercy is fighting that demand in court, calling it a power play by the owners of a substantial amount of its debt.
The Cedar Rapids school board set a process in motion Monday to ask voters in November to pass a $220 million bond referendum to support the Cedar Rapids Community School District’s facility master plan — the first of two requests expected to come before voters over the next several years.
The board in a 5-1 vote approved ballot language to bring the question to district voters in the Nov. 7 general election. But first, a “yes” committee volunteering to lead the charge to rally support will have to quickly organize, collecting almost 6,400 valid signatures from district voters by Sept. 22 to get the question placed on the ballot.
The district’s proposed plan calls for a combined $445 million bond referendum to be approved by voters. With the first referendum facing voters in November, the second bond referendum of $225 million could go to voters in November 2029 — ensuring all buildings in the district are new or recently renovated by 2037.
More than 18,600 Iowa students have been approved for an education savings account to pay for private school tuition and expenses, the Iowa Department of Education announced Monday.
The numbers exceed state projections that expected around 14,000 students would be approved for the accounts during the program’s first year. Those original projections expected the program would cost $107.4 million in its first year, and $345 million by the fourth year.
Lawmakers set no budget cap on the program, so each approved application will be funded, regardless of cost.
The program, which provides a student’s full per-pupil state allocation — around $7,600 — to families to pay for private school tuition, was the top legislative priority of Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds this session, and the first bill she signed into law in January.
At a board of education meeting last week, Iowa Department of Education officials said they expected around 60 percent of approved applications to be from students already attending private schools, and 40 percent to be from public school students.
