For the first and only time in 2023, four of the five members of the Butler County Hospital Authority met Wednesday, Nov. 22, to appoint officers for 2024 and review the organization’s annual audit report.

Mary Jo Dillon, solicitor for the authority, said the authority acts as somewhat of a middleman for healthcare agencies in the county that need financing for projects. However, the authority hasn’t been part of funding a project for years, so at Wednesday’s meeting, its members reviewed payments healthcare agencies made on previously funded projects.

“We provide conduit financing for healthcare facilities within and without Butler County,” Dillon said. “Some of these entities came to us and we worked with them and got bond financing... They came through our entity in order to get financing for their projects.”

At the meeting, the authority approved a 2023 account statement, which listed payments healthcare agencies made during the year on bonds and debts owed.

Conduit debt refers to certain limited obligation revenue bonds, although conduit debt obligations bear the name of the government issuer, the issuer has no obligation for such debt beyond the resources provided, according to the authority’s audit report.

Dillon said the authority just issues bonds to agencies that make project requests.

“Each one of these entities goes through different borrowers, so they would go to banks,” Dillon said. “They don’t pay us.”