Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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San Francisco Examiner - June 8, 2005
Justin Jouvenal, jjouvenal@examiner.com
Although voters solidly rejected a similar sales tax hike at the ballot box during the last election, Supervisor Chris Daly introduced an ordinance to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday that would raise San Francisco's sales tax from 8.5 percent to 8.75 percent to fund what activists said would be $27 million a year in public health services. The Board of Supervisors has to sign off on the plan before it would appear on the November ballot.
Under the ordinance, 60 percent of the tax would go to the San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center, 25 percent would go to community based health care providers and 15 percent will go to the Department of Public Health Community Health Care Clinics to provide general medicine, prenatal care, HIV/AIDS treatment and other services.
Robert Haaland, a union organizer with the Service Employees Union Local 790, said the tax increase was necessary because San Francisco's health care system is in dire shape. SEIU, which is a political heavyweight in The City, has pushed for the tax.
"Thirty percent of people that use emergency rooms get turned away because of overcrowding and understaffing. If you ask for an appointment tomorrow at a public health clinic, you would have to wait five months," Haaland said. "Our health care system is hemorrhaging."
Haaland said SEIU plans to throw its substantial political weight behind the proposition, and Daly plans to get an early jump on the campaign by starting the push this summer.
City voters must approve any sales tax, which will prove difficult given the fact that it needs two-thirds approval.
In November, City voters solidly rejected Propositions J and K, which would have respectively raised the sales tax a quarter percent and the business tax .1 percent. Prop. J was shot down by a 58 to 42 percent margin, while K lost by 55 to 45 percent. Mayor Gavin Newsom pushed both initiatives as ways to help balance budget.
Daly said Props. J and K are not a good indicator of how voters will feel about the new proposition. "San Franciscans are willing to pay more taxes if it's going to a service they care about," he said.
He has the backing of seven other supervisors, who have signed on as co-sponsors for the initiative.
Daly said he wants a sales tax because he feels it is easier to pass as there is no "built-in" opposition, even though sales taxes generally impact lower-income people more than those with more money. One of the arguments of opponents of Prop. J was that it would have a disproportionate affect on low-income residents in The City.
It appears the tax will have at least one opponent. Ryan Chamberlain, a field director with the politically moderate SFSOS, said a new tax is the last thing San Franciscans need now.
"We need to get our house in order before we ask the citizens for more," Chamberlain said. "We have a budget the size of Oklahoma and Los Angeles. L.A. has 9 million people, but we only have 750,000."
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