Two times was the charm for Measure E, the local parcel tax measure placed on the ballot for the second time this spring. With 68.9% of the vote “YES”, the measure accounted for 6,422 “YES” votes, vs. 2,890 “NO” votes, or 31.1%.
In order to pass, the measure needed to get a super majority of voter support, meaning over two-thirds of the vote. This round, it appears the lawn signs, advertising and phone calls paid off, though the vote remained pretty close. Anti-tax and local skeptics waged a letter-writing campaign in local papers and posts on Facebook, but were unable to overcome public concern about maintaining emergency room and local hospital services in the community.
The election result, said hospital boardmember Bill Boerum, “shows a big victory and reaffirms the community’s desire to maintain our hospital with its emergency facilities and advanced surgical capacities.”
Though a sense of relief is warranted, he said, complacency is not. “Valid concerns were expressed across the community about executive salaries and the lack of transparency by the administration, and insufficient oversight by the district board. These need to be addressed at the upcoming budget meetings, and direction given to work toward enterprise sustainability.”
The hospital continues to wrestle with economic challenges; this measure will not solve all its financial problems. It does, however, guarantee that roughly $3.8 million dollars annually will continue to flow to the hospital for the next five years.
I certainly hope the SVH Board got the message during this second effort to pass the Parcel Tax for the hospital. We expect much more from their oversight of SVH operations. Salaries are top heavy, and some SVH departments are simply not well enough utilized to be justified; what is the amount of account receivables not collected and why? What will be the plan to address the $45M in debt that the hospital has incurred? Property owner supported parcel taxes in perpetuity is NOT a wise or fair choice. The Board must make some major changes and improvements if they expect property owners to continue to fund the hospital’s debt.
Votes are still being counted in santa rosa. This thing is not over yet like the paper indicates….