$75-Million Pledge for Mo. Hospital Rests on Tax Increase

The family behind greeting-card giant Hallmark announced plans Wednesday to donate $75-million for a new building at Kansas City’s Children’s Mercy Hospital but made the gift contingent on local voters approving a sales-tax hike to support medical research, The Kansas City Star reports.

Hallmark Chairman Donald J. Hall would supply $25-million and the Hall Family Foundation $50-million for the planned Translational Medicine Institute of Jackson County, which would work on turning research results into new drugs and devices for treatment.

The proposed half-cent sales-tax increase, which Jackson County, Mo., legislators voted last week to place on the November 5 ballot, would raise $800-million over 20 years, with most of the revenue supporting research at Children’s Mercy and two other area institutions.

“We believe this is a moment we must seize,” said Bill Hall, president of the family foundation. “The tax is transformational. If it is passed, we will look back and say it helped shape our city.”