{"id":19857,"date":"2025-10-23T17:53:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T17:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/19857\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T17:53:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T17:53:10","slug":"san-jose-officials-support-sales-tax-measure-to-offset-health-care-impacts-but-concerns-linger-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/19857\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose officials support sales tax measure to offset health care impacts but concerns linger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite lingering concerns about affordability and a desire for better long-term planning, the vast majority of San Jose city leaders support the upcoming sales tax measure proposed to counter the effects of the Trump Administration\u2019s budget bill<\/a> on Santa Clara County\u2019s health care system.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the City Council approved a resolution in support of Measure A \u2014 the five-year, five-eighths of a cent tax proposal that will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot \u2014 by a 9-1 vote, with District 10 Councilmember George Casey casting the lone dissenting opinion.<\/p>\n

County officials had warned that the trillion-dollar nationwide cuts to Medicaid over the next decade would translate into $4.4 billion in revenue losses through 2030, which could result in higher premiums, increased costs and greater strain placed on the health care system.<\/p>\n

Although the prospect of higher sales taxes<\/a> \u2014 bringing San Jose up to 10% \u2014 was a difficult pill to swallow, elected officials opined that it presented a more palatable alternative to doing nothing to offset the devastating impacts.<\/p>\n

\u201cSan Jose\u2019s District 6 has more county hospital beds and specialty services than any other district in our city,\u201d Councilmember Michael Mulcahy said. \u201cIf this measure does not pass, we could see significant reductions in critical health care infrastructure that directly serves our residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

The budget bill has the potential to significantly impact California and Santa Clara County, which already face financial challenges that have led to hiring freezes and the elimination of vacant positions. The federal government has also impacted many local government services by canceling or failing to pay out grant awards.<\/p>\n

Along with imposing new requirements that could impact the Medicaid eligibility of millions of Californians, one-fourth of county residents utilize Medi-Cal. The insurance program is also the largest revenue provider for the county\u2019s health care system.<\/p>\n

If passed, Measure A would run for five years and raise approximately $330 million annually.<\/p>\n

Representatives for East San Jose noted the importance of preserving healthcare for their constituents. They referenced the advocacy efforts to protest HCA Healthcare\u2019s decision to downgrade and close key services at Regional Medical Center, which led to the county swooping in to purchase the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeasure A represents the next step in protecting the hard-won safety net gains and protecting our residents and ensuring our community has the care it deserves from birth on,\u201d District 5 Councilmember Peter Ortiz said.<\/p>\n

But several aspects of the sales tax measure have rankled Casey and organizations focused on fiscal responsibility.<\/p>\n

Casey noted that the ballot measure is a general sales tax \u201csold as a hospital rescue,\u201d but it does not obligate or ensure those revenues will be put to that use. He questioned how the county intends to use the money, noting that the $330 million annual revenue is insufficient to plug the billion-dollar deficits, and accused organizers of using \u201cslogans that play off emotions and ignore logic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gap doesn\u2019t close; it festers,\u201d Casey said. \u201cMeanwhile, new regional taxes are around the corner that will make the rates we pay and taxes even higher. Measure A offers no structural roadmap, no multi-year redesign of the health system, no governance or partnership strategy, no cost control plan, no workforce pipeline or diversion plan, and no primary care expansion targets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Casey also said the county has used the budget bill as a red herring to distract from the preexisting challenges it faced after buying up several hospitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis idea that H.R. 1 suddenly caught them with their pants down is a misnomer,\u201d Casey said.<\/p>\n

Santa Clara County Executive James R. Williams disputed that the county did not have a plan in a statement to The Mercury News.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe County is moving forward with a clear three-prong strategy to deal with the unprecedented and devastating cuts imposed on our hospital system by the federal government,\u201d Williams said. \u201cMeasure A is only one part \u2014 a critical part \u2014 of that strategy. We are pleased that the San Jos\u00e9 City Council recognizes this crisis, as we are committed to working in partnership with the City and others as we do everything we can to preserve access to lifesaving services in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he did not announce his voting intentions until earlier this month<\/a>, Mayor Matt Mahan said he struggled with supporting the measure because of his belief that governments should be working to get better, not bigger.<\/p>\n

But in his conversations with county leaders, Mahan stated they have acknowledged the need for a more efficient system and are working to better integrate homelessness and behavioral health systems with the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done a lot over the years to make government bigger here in our desire to provide a lot of services, amenities, infrastructure, but at some point we price out working with families,\u201d Mahan said. \u201cWe contribute to the cost of living (and) there is a breaking point. At the same time, the extensive cuts that H.R. 1 presents for our county are too much, too fast to mitigate in a short period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following Tuesday\u2019s vote, the Republican Party of Santa Clara County and fiscally conservative organizations blasted the City Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Council\u2019s endorsement of Measure A displays a troubling lack of business sense,\u201d said Pat Waite, Treasurer of the Silicon Valley Business Alliance. \u201cBusinesses of all sizes \u2014 but especially small local merchants \u2014 struggle in San Jose.\u00a0 And Measure A will just make a bad situation even worse. It\u2019s tone-deaf to business realities, as it will raise costs for business while making the city even less affordable for residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally Published: October 22, 2025 at 3:13 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite lingering concerns about affordability and a desire for better long-term planning, the vast majority of San Jose…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,387,7,181,100,182,88,90,89,198,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-19857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-pm-report","14":"tag-san-jose","15":"tag-san-jose-headlines","16":"tag-san-jose-news","17":"tag-santa-clara-county","18":"tag-south-bay"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}