Board of Supes Approves Healthy Kids Tax Measure for Nov. Ballot

With the June election right around the corner, it seems overwhelming to be thinking about November’s election. Not so for the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, who just this morning approved a measure for the November ballot designed to save the county’s Healthy Kids insurance program.

“That passes unanimously, and the campaign has begun,” said President Ken Yeager after the votes came in.

The measure will require two-thirds voter approval to pass a $29 parcel tax. After a number of large foundations decided to discontinue their funding of Healthy Kids, the program is facing a $3 million shortfall in 2011 in addition to other funding cuts. Since its inception in 2001, Healthy Kids has provided coverage to 37,000 children – 97 percent of county children now have medical, dental and vision coverage as opposed to 1 out of 8 prior to the program. The parcel tax is expected to raise $13.5-14 million.

Hand in hand with its funding woes, the program has increasingly struggled to meet demand. Kathleen King, executive director of Santa Clara Family Health Foundation, says without the tax “we will only be able to cover half as many in 2012 as in 2006. We’ll be forced to dis-enroll children for the first time.” The waiting list for Healthy Kids has been closed for some time. “[The tax will provide] a sustainable funding source for the Healthy Kids program for the next decade. This is the next phase in the development of this program,” said King.

David Metz of FM3, a public opinion research firm, showed polling that indicated the measure could pass with a slim margin – or lose by one. Though Supervisor Liz Kniss expressed some concern about the success of a tax measure in the current recession, she said, “I don’t think any of us are opposed to this.”

The vote proved as much.

25 Comments

  1. A flat tax per parcel.  In other words, the owner of a giant office building pays exactly the same tax as the owner of a 900 square foot home.

    This happens when businesses threaten to oppose the tax.  It’s not about fairness.  It’s about buying off the opposition. 

    The result is that taxes get shifted away from major landowners, and onto small homeowners.

    And it put the rest of us in a bad spot.  The only way for a voter to support children’s health care is to give a giant tax break to major land owners.  It makes it impossible to be both compassionate and fair.

    • Very well said Greg. One thing I’d like to add is that many are loosing their jobs and homes. Another tax is just not something citizens need, or can afford. We need less government spending and proper oversight of tax dollars.

  2. DEAD ON ARRIVAL!!

    If this is what the Clara County Board of Supervisors is spending their time on the the middle of the Obama Depression, trillion dollar federal deficit, $40 billion state deficit, $118 million city deficit, they are completely clueless and useless.

    We don’t need to fund another unsustainable social dependency scheme;  we need to eliminate them.

    • Give us a break! “Obama Depression”?? It must be quite a world you live in to pretend the previous 8 years were all sunshine and butterflies until the evil Obama rose to power and ruined everything. Your comment is simply biased and ridiculous and with brain power like yours it is no wonder we can’t get out of the mess we’ve been in well before Obama ever took the oath of office. Thanks for lending a helping hand, though.

    • > Nice try, but wrong as usual.  Bush’s mess.  No question, and irrefutable.

      So, got a nice ten percent increase, banked another thirty days of vacation to sell back to the government, and got an upgrade in your government car?  And, you won’t have to pay the Obamacare “cadillac tax” on you cadillic health plan —which you get to keep! 

      Life is good.

    • Nice try Nice Try.

      It seems we conveniently forget that the left owned the house and senate since 2006.

      You do remember Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?  The 2 GSE’s at the heart of the sub-prime mortgage debacle that led to the meltdown?

      “One chapter in this story took place in July 2005, when the Senate Banking Committee, then controlled by the Republicans, adopted tough regulatory legislation for the GSEs on a party-line vote—all Republicans in favor, all Democrats opposed. The bill would have established a new regulator for Fannie and Freddie and given it authority to ensure that they maintained adequate capital, properly managed their interest rate risk, had adequate liquidity and reserves, and controlled their asset and investment portfolio growth. “

      “Why was there no action in the full Senate? As most Americans know today, it takes 60 votes to cut off debate in the Senate, and the Republicans had only 55. … But in a 45 member Democratic caucus that included Barack Obama and the current Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.), these votes could not be found. “

      “As a senator, he [Obama] was the third largest recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, behind only Sens. Chris Dodd and John Kerry.”

      http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704671904575193910683111250.html

      Guess who was on the Freddie Mac board of directors?
      “On Emanuel’s watch, the board was told by executives of a plan to use accounting tricks to mislead shareholders about outsize profits the government-chartered firm was then reaping from risky investments. “

      “During his [Rahm Emanuel] brief time on the board, the company hatched a plan to enhance its political muscle. That scheme, also reviewed by the board, led to a record $3.8 million fine from the Federal Election Commission for illegally using corporate resources to host fundraisers for politicians.”

      http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/chi-rahm-emanuel-profit-26-mar26,0,5682373.story

      Guess which congressman (in charge of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac oversight) was literally *in bed* with Freddie Mac?  ie.  Barney Frank slept with Freddie Mac and the taxpayers got screwed.

      http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,432501,00.html

      But enough with all the text.  Let’s go to the tape.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

      Both Congress (Dodd, Frank, et al) and Wall Street types should be put in prison for this.

      • Nice try, but, as usual, irrelevant.  Novice is the poster child for how search tools, and the Internet, are abused by the ignorant.  Any fool, as Novice continually demonstrates, can string together search results without understanding the results. 

        Keep up the good work.  You continually help the conservative cause.  Just as the Tea Baggers are helping the Republicans.

        • This time I was sure it was going to be different.

          I so had my hopes up to finally be shown the error of my ways.  But like so many times before Not a Novice provides nothing but another post full of rant and free of any insight, rational thought, etc.

          Not a Novice, if you’d be so kind to go sit over there with the others that move their lips whilst reading.

          Much obliged.

        • Dear Less Than a Novice

          > You continually help the conservative cause.

          You say that like you think it’s a BAD thing.

          It’s really a GOOD thing!

          Cheer up.  You’re in for some conservative “hope and change” come November.

          You might want to make a reservation for your re-education camp now before all the good spots are taken.

  3. Another transfer of wealth from working middle class voters to poor by California’s liberal multimillionaire elected officials to get re-elected by social welfare dependent voters and government employee voters and liberal millionaire senior government employees so they can create hundreds more government jobs

    Have you ever meet California elected official or senor government employee who push these wealth transfer social programs to which they contribute little money who is not a millionaire or personally benefits from increased taxes ?

      • > In fact, none of them that I have met are millionaires.

        Liberal multi-millionaire California elected officials slurping out of the public trough:

        Exhibit A:  Senator Dianne Feinstein, multi-millionare.  Chaired the Senate MILCON (Miltary Construction) Committee, while here husband (Richard Blum) businesses profited from government MILCON contracts.  She should be in jail.  Here husband is also the founder of National University, which trains teachers at exhorbitant tuition.  The tuition is subsidized by government money.  If the teacher drops out or is a dud, the taxpayer is stuck.

        Exhibit B:  Senator Barbara Boxer, multi-millionare.

        Wife of a trial lawyer who got rich off of attacking businesses.  Senators are notorious for slipping little provisions into legislation that make it too, too easy for trial lawyers to pick the pockets of businesses. (“Your product was not labeled in accordance with the provisions of Title Xyz, so my client ate an entire 5 pound bag of chicken manure thinking it was health food”.)

        • That’s it? That’s all you’ve got? And here I thought it was a grand conspiracy where every elected official and senior government employee was a millionaire. Come back when you having something a little more worthy of your hyperbole.

        • > That’s it? That’s all you’ve got? And here I thought it was a grand conspiracy where every elected official and senior government employee was a millionaire.

          Well, actually no.  It’s not “all I’ve got.”  It’s all that I figured you could handle.

          Unfortunately, YOU are all YOU’VE got.  Which doesn’t give the rest of us much to work with.

        • And of course, that’s irrelevant to the discussion here, which pertains to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, who are trying to desperately figure out how to continue to provide vital health services to children in our county.  None are going to get rich supporting a tax that allows continuation of Healthy Kids.

        • > . . . the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, who are trying to desperately figure out how to continue to provide vital health services to children in our county. 

          Here’s an idea.

          Why doesn’t the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors assign the responsibility of providing vital health services to children in our county to the actual PARENTS of the children!

          After all, the Board of Supervisors didn’t authorize the parents to have children or guarantee that they would provide “vital health services”.  The parents just acted on their own, and are now trying to stick their parental obligations on to someone else.

          What does the Board of Supervisors have against parents exercising parental responsibility?

  4. ” President ” of Board of Supervisors – What were they thinking or is that not political joke name is what ?

    Ken is a decent guy but ” President ” of BOS ? 

    People all over US and other countries will get a great laugh about political ego behind ” President ” of Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors name

    President Yeager meet President Oboma and this is Mexican President Felipe Calderon   –

    Senior Yeager what county are you El Presidente?

    Oh,  Santa Clara County not country. Ha, ha ,ha

    President Oboma he is making a political joke, si ?

    He is not?  Excuse me, I though it was a US political joke – I can’t help myself It is so funny Ha, ha , ha A President of a County,  not a country Ha, ha , ha  

    President Yeager you are not laughing, you don’t see the humor ?  Ha, ha, ha

    • That’s a scream!  Thanks for providing some humor!  These people – Yeager, Shirakawa, et al – can’t seem to focus upon their jobs.  The County faces a quarter-billion dollar deficit and they piss the time away sanctioning Arizona, forbidding toys in kids’ meals, and increasing taxes to sustain programs that were not financially sound at inception.

  5. I’m sure everyone has received a letter describing the need to update the city’s 50 year old sewer/water system. The city council is to vote on the matter of increasing our property taxes to cover this expense; if I recall, they are allowing the citizens to protest by June 15th.

    While I completely agree with updating the city’s sewer/water system, I have a hard time agreeing to any tax increase until they deal with the budget crisis. Its time they start making cuts. There already is enough money being collected from the taxpayers to maintain the city’s infrastructure.

  6. The only parcel tax measures I would support are ones intended to better fund the public libraries, or the local community colleges.  I have never seen such a proposal on the ballot, hence I’ve always voted “No,” and shall do so again this time.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *