Voters created the Palm Drive District and approved the parcel tax to support a Community Hospital with an Emergency Room. Now, both are gone, but we still have $millions of debt to pay for the next 14 years.
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LAFCO VOTES AUGUST 2020
Twenty years ago Palm Drive Health Care District was formed to ensure that the West County had access to an independent, acute care hospital and 24-hour emergency room. That proved unsustainable despite our parcel tax support. The hospital has been sold but the tax remains until 2034. We have to pay for past mistakes, but we don't have to repeat them.
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LIST OF ISSUES
USE OF MEASURE W FUNDS IS QUESTIONABLE
Voters approved Measure W in 2004 for a specific purpose: to ensure that Palm Drive Hospital, with an emergency room, would stay open. After two hospital bankruptcies, the District sold the hospital and no longer needs Measure W funds for the specific purpose voters approved.
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We voted for a community hospital with an emergency room--
and now that's gone.
NO SUNSET PROVISION
Because Measure W was intended to provide consistent funding to support the hospital's operations, it was to be in place for as long as needed for that specific purpose. The District no longer operates the hospital, so the purpose for those never-ending funds does not exist.
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Our taxes should only be used to pay off existing debt. Period.
DID YOU KNOW--THE DISTRICT CAN KEEP BORROWING FOREVER?
The guarantee of ongoing, unending parcel tax revenue allowed the District to borrow funds without going to the voters again for approval. The parcel tax will continue to be levied until we stop it.
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If the District is NOT dissolved, the District Board can continue to borrow against future tax revenues--without asking for voters' approval.
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NOW WHAT?
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A legal opinion on the legal use of Measure W funds was due in December, then in January, and will not be shared with the public. The District Board views the additional money they collected from taxpayers unnecessarily as surplus and approved a proposal to donate up to $200,000 to a new nonprofit with a broader mission than that associated with the local chapter of Sonoma County Health Action. To get on the mailing list and receive notices of special Board meetings, please contact jharris@pdhcd.com.
WHAT CAN I DO?
Volunteer to help inform the public
Stay up to date until August! Tell friends to monitor the District's actions. Watch for special Board meetings -- they need only give 24 hours' notice. Attend and express your opinion.
Write to your LAFCO representatives and the successor agency that will wind up the District's affairs and pay the bills after dissolution. Emails are on the home page.