Hospitals' sales tax faces tough battle
Similar measure in Monterey County fails to get support
By Rebecca Vesely, STAFF WRITER, Oakland Tribune
Thursday, December 04, 2003

Proponents of a half-cent sales tax to fund Alameda County hospitals and clinics -- appearing on the March 2004 ballot -- are eyeing the defeat of a similar measure in Monterey County on Tuesday with some trepidation.

Measure Q would have raised $25 million a year to fund the Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, which is facing a $30 million deficit. The initiative fell short of a two-thirds majority necessary in a mail-in election that ended Tuesday night, despite widespread support from county officials, physicians and labor groups.

"It's clearly a reminder of how difficult the campaign will be," said Bradley Cleveland, spokesman for SEIU Local 616, which represents health care workers in Alameda County. "But I don't think we've had any illusions that it will be easy."

As of Wednesday afternoon, Measure Q received 61.3 percent of the vote, with 38.6 percent voting no. There were still some 6,000 ballots to count, but those would not change the outcome, Monterey County Elections officials said.

On Tuesday, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors put the final stamp of approval on the sales tax measure, which will appear on the March 2 ballot. It would put the county's sales tax at 8.75 percent -- beating San Francisco County as the highest in the state. The Monterey and Alameda initiatives are similar in some ways.

As in Monterey County, the half-cent sales tax here would underwrite a health system that cares for the county's poor and indigent. The Alameda County Medical Center, which includes Highland and Fairmont hospitals and John George Psychiatric facility, will get 75 percent of the estimated $90 million raised through the tax. The medical center is facing a budget deficit estimated at nearly $86 million and will likely slash services without a substantial new funding stream.

Also as in Monterey, the county-run hospital and clinics have been wracked with political strife, turnover in leadership and accusations of financial mismanagement. And, other hospitals meet the needs of many voters.

Cheri Stock, spokeswoman for Natividad, said these factors contributed to Measure Q's defeat.

"People felt like, well, the county has mismanaged the money, and the people using the hospital are illegal (immigrants)," Stock said.

Rick Taylor, political strategist at Dakota Communications, a Los Angeles firm that led the Yes on Measure Q campaign -- and a successful parcel tax in Los Angeles to fund county hospitals -- said a small but active opposition contributed to the defeat.

"The two-thirds majority is just a monster to climb," Taylor said, adding, "The hospital had a history of mismanagement -- if one thing stuck with voters it was how that money would be spent."

The county Farm Bureau, Salinas Chamber of Commerce and the Hospitality Association were against the measure, because of a lack of concrete sunset provision, no detailed plan on how the money would be spent, and a perception that the medical center was a "money pit," said Bob Perkins, executive director of the Farm Bureau.

"From the very start, there was a level of mistrust," Perkins said.

The Alameda County sales tax would expire in 15 years, in 2019 -- a move that secured an endorsement from the Alameda County Taxpayers Alliance.

Turnout was 44.4 percent of registered voters, of those ballots already counted -- considered a healthy turnout, especially for an all-mail election.

Contact Rebecca Vesely at

rvesely@angnewspapers.com

Joe DeVries, a staffer for Supervisor Nate Miley, who is spearheading the Alameda County tax initiative, said comparing Monterey to Alameda is apples and oranges.

"We've crafted our proposal differently, to provide health care funding to all parts of the county," DeVries said.

Indeed, all the money raised by Monterey's sales tax would have gone to Natividad. In Alameda County, the remaining 25 percent not going toward the medical center will fund other hospital emergency departments that serve the poor and uninsured, and to community-based clinics.

Proponents of the Alameda County measure plan to spend about $500,000 on the campaign, DeVries said. Taylor said Yes on Measure Q spent the same amount. Opponents spent less than $30,000.

As for Natividad, officials will meet later this week to discuss action. Closing the intensive care unit and outpatient clinics, putting the emergency room on standby and cutting back to only serve women and children are all options on the table, Stock said.

Contact Rebecca Vesely at rvesely@angnewspapers.com