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Hospital parcel tax ballots in mail

Sonoma Valley voters will be getting ballots in the mail this week for an election with just one issue: a renewal of the $195 parcel tax to support operations at Sonoma Valley Hospital.

Called Measure A, the parcel tax ballot – if passed – would continue the current tax for another five years. Voters approved the existing parcel tax in 2007. The mail ballots were sent out Monday to all voters who live within the Sonoma Valley Health Care District, which covers all of the Valley. To pass, the measure needs approval from two-thirds of voters, who will have until March 6 to return their ballots to the Sonoma County Registrar of Voters, although campaign organizers are pushing for voters to return the ballots early.

“When you get your ballot, please mark it and return it, don’t leave it on your to-do list,” said Bill Hutchinson, who is active with the “Yes on A” campaign.

Money collected from the parcel tax, which totals about $2.8 million annually and represents 6 percent of the district hospital’s $46 million budget, will support general operations at the hospital. Revenue collected from the parcel tax cannot be used on any capital improvements, specifically the ongoing retrofit of the hospital to meet state seismic laws. A parcel tax is one of the few ways a health care district can tax its users. “Many district hospitals do have taxpayer support,” said Rick Reid, the chief financial officer for Sonoma Valley, Marin General and Palm Drive hospitals.

Compared to five years ago, the hospital is in a better position financially, thanks to the close monitoring of expenses from Reid and Chief Executive Officer Kelly Mather.

“Our volume is up 5 percent, yet our basic labor costs are lower than they were last year. That’s a tremendous success,” said board Chair Peter Hohorst during Thursday’s board of directors meeting.

Even with current improvements in expense controls, the parcel tax is still keeping the hospital in the black financially. The facility ended the 2010-11 fiscal year with a $1 million loss, which was largely due to footing a $1.3 million bill throughout the year for deferred maintenance on the facility. Nonetheless, the loss would have been $3.8 million without monies produced by the parcel tax.

Hospital administrators and board members insisted that, particularly in the face of impending health care reform, the tax is needed to cover expenses at the hospital and to keep the emergency room open. As the minutia of health care reform gets hashed out in court, there is no way for Sonoma Valley Hospital to accurately predict how the changes will impact the district facility, and that means the parcel tax is still needed as a safety net.

“… if it (the tax) does not pass, then we will have to put an action plan together to look at the services that are provided and make some hard decisions,” Reid said.

While property taxes are based on the assessed value of a piece of land, a parcel tax is applied equally to each parcel of land regardless of its value. What defines a parcel can vary drastically, and comes down to what is written in the deed.

“We look at the legal description on the deed,” said Bill Rousseau, chief deputy assessor of the Sonoma County Assessor’s Office.

Sonoma City Planner David Goodison further explained, “A parcel is a legal lot of record that can be taxed. It could be commercial, it could be residential.”

There is no specific size that defines a parcel, and depending on how a deed is written, a single piece of land can be made up of multiple parcels. Property owners will be charged on their property tax bill for each parcel that appears in their name.

Erick Roeser, property tax division manager of the Sonoma County Auditor-Controller-Treasurer-Tax Collector Office, said there are more than 100 districts in the county that can seek parcel tax, but the tax can only apply to the residents that receive the benefit of that special district.

“If you don’t live within the district boundary, it won’t appear on your tax bill,” he said. “The charge would be levied against all parcels that are applicable.”

Roeser explained that the language of the ballot measure determines which parcels get taxed, and how much. He said fire districts, particularly, are known to tax commercial parcels at a higher rate, as they often take more resources to protect. The health care district’s ballot language said it will seek the $195 fee on “each taxable parcel of land,” meaning all parcels will be at the same rate. According to the ballot language, “Taxable parcels are those that appear on the annual secured county property tax roll.”

Parcel taxes are not deductible on state or federal tax returns, Roeser said. “However, we don’t offer income tax advice, we recommend that people talk to their tax preparer about deductions,” he added.

Campaign organizers said they sought a mail ballot, despite the $100,000 price tag, to give them more options if the measure doesn’t pass.

 “Getting it done earlier has several advantages. The largest is, if it does not pass there is another opportunity to go back to the voters,” Reid said.

Hutchinson added another benefit of the mail election is that the County’s Registrar of Voters can notify his group which voters have returned their ballots.

“We can call and remind people they need to send them in,” he said.

Ballots must be received to the Registrar of Voters by March 6, meaning those who are mailing them back must account for the time it takes for the ballot to get delivered. Voters may also drop off their ballot at the County Registrar of Voters office at 435 Fiscal Drive, Santa Rosa. Normal office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., although on March 6, the office will have extended hours of 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.