Property Tax Hike Proposed

Los Angeles County supervisors will ask voters to approve a $175-million parcel tax to shore up the county’s fraying network of emergency rooms and trauma centers, officials said Wednesday.

They are scheduled next week to begin the process of placing the initiative on the November ballot. Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky unveiled his proposal for the tax increase, and a majority of his colleagues said through aides that they support the idea.

The tax would also provide money for bioterrorism preparedness.

The proposal would cost property owners 3 cents per square foot per month, or $46.22 annually for a 1,500-square-foot house. To pass, the measure must receive two-thirds of the vote.

In his proposal, Yaroslavsky says $92 million a year is needed to preserve the county’s public emergency rooms that are threatened with closure. It also calls for spending $63 million to aid the trauma network of public and private hospitals that treat victims of severe injuries, and $20 million to combat bioterrorism.

“The trauma and emergency services medical network of this county is in danger of collapse if something isn’t done,” Yaroslavsky said.

But Kris Vosburgh of the anti-tax Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. said the measure was ill-conceived. “The reason the county has less money is because the people have less money,” he said. “This is not the time to raise taxes.”

Because of declining federal funding, the county faces an $800-million deficit in its health department in three years. Earlier this month the supervisors voted to make the deepest cuts ever to their medical system, cutting $150 million from the budget to close 11 clinics and High Desert Hospital and eliminating 5,000 jobs. The cuts are being appealed by county unions and health advocates.

If the county does not get more money from Washington, the health department has proposed closing two far larger hospitals in October: Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center near Torrance.

Shutting those hospitals’ emergency rooms could wreck the county’s emergency and trauma network by swamping financially strapped private hospitals with uninsured patients, health experts warn.

Yaroslavsky has long spoken about the possibility of pushing a ballot initiative to fund the trauma system, as have county unions. In recent days he has discussed his proposal with his fellow supervisors, who have indicated support.

Supervisor Gloria Molina backs the measure, according to her spokesman, Miguel Santana. “This is something that impacts every resident, regardless of whether they have insurance,” he said. “This is something that everyone in this county should support.”

An aide to Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke said she also backs the proposal.

Supervisor Don Knabe also supports the idea of a tax to preserve the trauma system, said his spokesman, John Musella, although he needs to study the details of Yaroslavsky’s proposal before committing to it.

Yaroslavsky said the money also could be used to add trauma services in the east San Gabriel Valley, which lacks a trauma center. His proposal calls for the possible establishment of trauma centers in hospitals in Pomona and Baldwin Park or West Covina.

He warned that $175 million would make only a dent in the county’s health deficit, and that the budget picture is still fluctuating because the state, which funds much of the health department, is wrestling with its own record deficit.

But a tax could help persuade the federal government to help Los Angeles County, Yaroslavsky and others said, by demonstrating that residents are willing to sacrifice to keep their system operating.