A legislator says St. Luke’s is ‘too cozy’ with an Idaho hospital district

The “Give Us a Vote!” group says the taxing district is improperly subsidizing St. Luke’s McCall, a subsidiary of the nonprofit St. Luke’s Health System.

The group is led by state Rep. Faye Thompson of McCall, former publisher of The Star-News Tomi Grote. and Dr. Curt Meske, a former St. Luke’s McCall physician and the medical director of the Valley Countywide EMS District.

The group is seeking property owners in the hospital district — which includes McCall and Donnelly as far south as Tamarack Resort — to join their complaint by June 22, in advance of filing a formal complaint with the Attorney General’s Office in July.

“The GUV! group makes a good argument that there is too cozy of a relationship between the district and St. Luke’s,” Thompson said. “We are asking the AG’s office to determine if this relationship crosses the line.”

GUV argues that the hospital district’s financial contributions to St. Luke’s McCall violate the Idaho Constitution.

The district’s actions test “the state constitution’s ban on subsidizing private entities without a clear benefit to the public that is greater than the benefit to the business interest,” the complaint claims.

In 2016, the Attorney General’s Office renegotiated a health services agreement between the district and St. Luke’s to ensure that the two parties acted independently.

“The MMHD board views the relationship between the two as a ‘partnership’, which is exactly the opposite of what the attorney general intended,” Meske said.

Representatives from St. Luke’s McCall declined to comment.

MMHD Board Chair Andy Laidlaw maintained the district “has been meticulous in staying within the parameters defined by the revised agreements.

“The goal of MMHD is to improve the health \care in our community. Every expenditure is to improve or benefit property owned by the District or to support programs to enhance or expand local healthcare,” Laidlaw said.

“The expenditures are budgeted and funds tracked. The District also has a say in the scope of services offered in the community and has endeavored to expand those offerings for the convenience of our patrons,” he said.

The GUV complaint also says the district has never sought competitive proposals for tax funds, only granting requests from St. Luke’s and hosting no competitive process for other applicants to benefit public health.

The GUV group also said that early efforts to persuade the district to authorize an advisory vote were ignored.

The MMHD board created a committee to consider whether to vote on dissolution. At the board’s May meeting, the committee recommended an advisory vote, but no action was taken.

The attorney general cannot dissolve the district. Dissolution can only be done by a vote by district citizens.

The MMHD levies about $1.5 million in taxes per year. Since 2016, the district has allocated about $12.5 million for health care improvement projects, exclusively in partnership with St. Luke’s McCall.

Recently, those funds have been used to develop employee housing for the hospital, which includes 38 units to be built in five-phases on about five acres to the east of Mission Street and south of Stibnite Street.

“This is a critical need which the district identified as a priority because it is directly related to the quality of health care which can be provided by the district,” Laidlaw said.

The property was purchased for $965,500 in 2024 by the St. Luke’s McCall Foundation from the McCall-Donnelly School District.

The hospital district has dedicated about $871,000 toward the project in 2025 and about $2 million in total to workforce housing.

The MMHD plans to buy roughly half of the property from the foundation.

“We contend that funneling public funds through St. Luke’s McCall Foundation is a money laundering shell game,” said a letter to the attorney general signed by Thompson, Grote and Meske.

Once completed, the housing project would be rented to employees of St. Luke’s McCall.

This story was originally published June 14, 2025 at 11:55 AM.