Publicly-funded warnings about disastrous local hospital closures are appearing in the mailboxes of Santa Clara County residents. Critics can’t help but notice the timing.
The foreboding mailers, under the county government’s official letterhead, are appearing weeks before voters decide on a five-eighth-cent sales tax measure Nov. 4. County leaders say the sales tax, known as Measure A, will protect their massive public hospital system from life-threatening cuts under H.R. 1., the Trump administration bill that guts the county’s largest source of hospital funding.
Opponents of Measure A say the county mailers — which don’t explicitly mention or endorse the sales tax — are dancing around laws barring government agencies from engaging in political campaigns.
“We’re quite upset with this. At least three mailers have been sent out using taxpayer dollars,” Rishi Kumar, chair of the No on Measure A Tax Committee, who will also appear on the special election ballot as a county assessor candidate, told San José Spotlight. “I haven’t seen this before in Santa Clara County. But it’s time to stop it, which is why opponents of Measure A are going to be filing a lawsuit against the county.”
A county mailer sent to voters for the Nov. 4 special election is about deciding whether a hospital sales tax warns of closures and service cuts without funding. Photo courtesy of Rishi Kumar.
California’s Political Reform Act restricts the use of public money for the mass mailing of campaign materials. On Wednesday, the state’s premier campaign finance watchdog declined to specifically rule on the mailers — but suggested they’re lawful.
“Generally, a payment for a communication that does not expressly advocate for or against a candidate or measure or urge a result in an election, when taken as a whole and in context, does not constitute a contribution or independent expenditure,” Shery Yang, spokesperson for California’s Fair Political Practices Commission, told San José Spotlight. “For example, a mailing that is sent to senior citizens to explain the purpose of an upcoming ballot measure that will provide a tax exemption for certain seniors is considered to be informational, not campaign material.”
Sean McMorris, a political transparency expert with California Common Cause, said the public could reasonably infer the county mailers aim to influence the special election’s outcome. But because the flyer does not identify a specific measure or use clear-cut phrases like “vote for” or “support Measure A,” he said the mailers are likely subject to fewer regulatory requirements.
“Is this a loophole in our campaign finance laws? It is reasonable to think so, but it is legal until the Supreme Court says otherwise,” McMorris told San José Spotlight.
The county has sent the mailers regardless of whether or not residents are registered to vote, according to county officials. Total printing and postage cost a total of $266,000, they said. Mailers went out to a total of 700,000 households.
County Executive James Williams — the CEO of the administration who reports to the elected Board of Supervisors — said the county has a duty to spread awareness of existential threats to residents.
“The county has an obligation to ensure that every resident in our community understands the severe magnitude of budget cuts imposed on us by the actions of this federal administration. This mailer — which was sent to voters and non-voters alike — is one part of a broader effort to ensure everyone recognizes this fiscal crisis and the impacts our community faces,” Williams told San José Spotlight. “The county has a clear legal right to provide factual information to the public.”
While the county placed Measure A on the ballot, its executives have taken steps to legally distance themselves from the campaign. The campaign is chaired by Michael Elliott, president of Valley Health Foundation, the private nonprofit fundraising arm of the county’s health care system.
“The few folks that are opposing Measure A are opposing it because they are supporters of Donald Trump and agree with the cuts in H.R. 1,” Elliott told San José Spotlight. “They do not like hearing the truth about the consequences of H.R. 1 — it makes them very, very angry.”
Elliott added that county executives are reacting to the reality around them.
“We live in the real world here. These federal cuts are real. They’re being imposed on us and they’re going to cause consequences,” Elliott said. “I think the county’s perspective is, if we’re going to start drastically having to cut public services that people depend upon, then there is an obligation to notice the public, to make sure that people are aware.”
Kumar said the No on Measure A campaign is a bipartisan effort.
“Our movement comes from every spectrum of Silicon Valley pushing back on this very regressive tax increase,” Kumar said. “I was an executive board member of the California Democratic Party. I don’t see myself as MAGA at all. But that’s the game we are playing today.”
Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X.