Editorial: Voters should reject Washington health care district parcel tax
Briefly

Editorial: Voters should reject Washington health care district parcel tax
"Southern Alameda County's Washington Township Health Care District is coming up short each year and now its leaders want to turn to property owners to make up the difference. Measure B on the Nov. 4 ballot in Fremont, Newark, Union City and a small part of South Hayward would impose a parcel tax of $5 per 100 square feet of building area. For an average size single-family house in the district, that's about $90 annually."
"Measure B would cover about $13 million of that shortfall. Those taxes would be on top of the district's bond program, which voters in 2020 agreed to increase to pay for hospital seismic improvements. To cover the cost of the bonds, property owners this fiscal year will pay $21.80 per $100,000 of assessed value, or about $167 for a home with a district-average assessed value."
"But the district's arguments for the measure are misleading, and officials are unwilling to discuss specifics of how they plan to address their financial shortfall, which is more than twice as big as the revenue expected from the new tax. Voters should reject Measure B. The district, formed in 1948, today operates a 415-bed acute care hospital. For the current and past two fiscal years, the district shows operating losses of about $30 million annually, or about 3.5% of its operating expenses."
Washington Township Health Care District operates a 415-bed acute care hospital and has recorded operating losses of about $30 million annually for recent fiscal years. Measure B would levy a parcel tax of $5 per 100 square feet for 12 years, generating roughly $13 million toward that deficit. The district already levies a bond tax to fund seismic hospital improvements, costing property owners about $21.80 per $100,000 assessed value this year and likely to rise. Operating expenses increased 24% over three years while employee counts are about 15% above pre-pandemic levels. District officials have not provided specific plans to close the larger remaining deficit.
#measure-b #parcel-tax #hospital-finances #bond-program
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