It may sound odd, but there’s nothing unusual about the fact that the Mountain View Hospital District continues to collect property taxes. Though all its assets have been transferred to St. Charles Health System, the district still has work to do and bills to pay.

In fact, says Lee Bissell, a member of the Madras hospital district’s board of directors, it is likely to take another two years to wind up business and dissolve, though the district is unlikely to collect taxes the entire time.

Taxing districts don’t simply vanish, at least not in Oregon.

In the MVHD case, though all its assets were transferred to St. Charles at the first of the year, bills from the transaction remain to be paid, and the 21-cent per $1,000 of assessed property value tax collected will do that. In addition, an audit must be paid for.

Even once all that happens, the district won’t disappear overnight, however. Bissell says taxes may be collected next year, though likely at a lower rate than they are this year. District voters will decide for themselves how any money left over should be spent, though Oregon law limits their choices.

The district is unlikely to collect taxes in its final year, two years from now.

Meanwhile, the district has no involvement with the St. Charles system, Bissell says. When the district’s work is complete, voters likely will be asked to dissolve it, just as voters in Redmond did after St. Charles took over Central Oregon District Hospital in January 2001. In the Redmond hospital district’s case, more than 80 percent of those voting agreed there was no need for the district to continue; it’s difficult to imagine the situation will be different in Jefferson County.

The process is lengthy — about three years from the date of the transfer until all is done — but it is set up to assure that bills are paid and finances are in order. Even for relatively small districts, that takes time.