Port balks at request to enter hospital district

Commissioners of the Port of Whitman County balked last week at a request to annex the port’s new industrial park into the Pullman Regional Hospital District.

Commissioners worried the hospital’s tax levy would increase land development prices and discourage potential tenants for their new, 35-acre industrial park at the southwest corner of Highway 27 and the Pullman-Albion Road.

Tenants at port sites lease land from the port and pay a leasehold tax equivalent to what tax levies would be on the property.

“My personal opinion is anyone that’s going to be situated in an area that’s serviced by a...