{"id":703078,"date":"2026-06-14T06:36:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T06:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/703078\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T06:36:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T06:36:45","slug":"california-voters-split-on-county-sales-taxes-for-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/703078\/","title":{"rendered":"California voters split on county sales taxes for health"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ana B. Ibarra<\/a>, CalMatters<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\""A\"
\n\t\t\t\tDerek Canizalez, 10, is administered a COVID-19 vaccine at one of St. John\u2019s Well Child and Family Center mobile health clinics outside of Helen Keller Elementary School in Los Angeles on March 16, 2022. Photo by Alisha Jucevic for CalMatters<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by CalMatters<\/a>. Sign up<\/a> for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

California voters are delivering a split decision on whether they want to pay more sales tax to support healthcare services: Los Angeles County’s measure is clinging to a narrow lead, while Contra Costa County’s went down in defeat, a divide experts attribute to growing anxiety over the cost of living.<\/p>\n

In Los Angeles, Measure ER, which proposes a half-cent sales tax for the next five years, led as of Tuesday evening with 50.59% of the vote. The measure requires a simple majority to pass. Supporters estimate that tax, which would not apply to groceries and medications, could generate $1 billion a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The county\u2019s voters historically have been supportive of taxing themselves to fund public initiatives, said Mike Bonin, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles. But Measure ER proved to be a hard sell.<\/p>\n

Even among Democrats and progressives, Bonin said, there was weariness over the measure’s regressive nature \u2014 meaning sales taxes tend to fall harder on lower-income residents than wealthy ones. \u201cThis is tough on people, and so there was some resistance to it, which is why I think it took until (Monday) for it to get over the hump,\u201d Bonin said.<\/p>\n

In Contra Costa, Measure B would have levied a five-eights-cent tax generating an estimated $150 million a year. Voters rejected the measure, with 57% of voters opposing as of the latest count.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re in a difficult period for middle-income people,\u201d said Marc Joffe, president of the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association who led the campaign against Measure B. \u201cI think the fact that gasoline went up to $6 during the course of the campaign was probably a wind (at) our back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The results stand in contrast to Santa Clara County, where voters last fall approved a sales tax with 57% of the vote.<\/p>\n

Why counties turned to voters<\/p>\n

Both measures were a response to the federal spending package Congress and President Trump passed last summer. Because of changes to Medicaid, also known as Medi-Cal<\/a> in California, counties are bracing for a spike in the number of uninsured people. And as people lose coverage but continue to seek care, safety net providers stand to lose significant revenue. In L.A., money from the sales tax would also shore up county public health, Planned Parenthood services and emergency preparedness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coalitions of safety net providers backed the measures, warning that without new revenue, they could be forced to reduce hours, cut staff or close facilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no way out of this,\u201d Louise McCarthy, chief executive of the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County, said on election night. \u201cThis is a situation that is being forced upon us. No local decisions made this happen, and no local decisions without revenue can solve the problem we\u2019re in now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

New estimates<\/a> by the UC Berkeley Labor Center project that 2.2 million more Californians will go without health insurance by 2030 because of Trump\u2019s spending law and recent state actions. That would nearly double the state\u2019s uninsured rate to 14.7% and erase much of the state\u2019s progress over the last decade at getting everyone insured. Counties, which operate safety net clinics and hospitals, say the federal policies and funding cuts \u2013 and not enough support from the state \u2013 are leaving them with major budget holes and in search of new ways to generate revenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who introduced Measure ER, called the sales tax a \u201clast resort,\u201d saying the county had already enacted hiring freezes, limited overtime and tapped emergency reserves. The county estimates it will lose about $2.5 billion over the next three years because of federal cuts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The measure was opposed by some cities, anti-tax groups and County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents the region\u2019s sprawling northern exurbs.\u00a0 Lancaster and Palmdale have nation-leading sales tax<\/a> rates of 11.25%, and in Contra Costa County, sales taxes in Pinole and El Cerrito in Contra Costa have reached 10.25%. Both counties needed Legislative approval<\/a> to pursue new sales taxes because their measures exceeded state limits.<\/p>\n

The sales tax measures came as half of Californians<\/a> named cost of living as the top state issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Susan Shelley with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which opposed both measures, argued the proposals were misleading. Because backers structured the measures as general sales taxes \u2014 meaning counties can legally use the funds at their discretion \u2014 rather than earmarked taxes for healthcare, they required only a simple majority, not the two-thirds threshold that a special tax would have demanded.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For other counties that may consider taking similar measures to voters: \u201cI hope it sends the message that people are taxed enough,\u201d Shelley said.\u00a0
Jim Mangia, chief executive of St. John\u2019s Community Health, said the county will use the sales tax revenue as intended: for healthcare.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a temporary solution, and we will not stop fighting for the long-term federal funding Angelenos deserve,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Counties press state for help<\/p>\n

Contra Costa County runs one hospital and 11 clinics. Proponents of the measure estimated it would face at least a $1 billion deficit over five years because of funding losses, though\u00a0 opponents disputed those figures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

County Supervisor John Gioia said revenue from the tax would have protected critical services and helped keep people insured. Under Trump\u2019s budget bill counties will soon have to check people\u2019s eligibility for Medicaid every six months rather than once a year, and adults without children will face new work reporting requirements.<\/p>\n

Gioia said the tax could have funded additional eligibility workers and bolstered the county\u2019s program that provides basic health services to people with no insurance options.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles and Contra Costa looked to Santa Clara County as a model. Voters there approved a similar measure last November; it took effect in April, and county officials anticipate it will make roughly $337 million a year. The county is allocating<\/a> those dollars toward emergency services, cardiac care, mental health services and maternity care, among other areas.<\/p>\n

But even that revenue only covers a third of Santa Clara\u2019s projected shortfall, said County Executive James\u00a0R. Williams. The county is still cutting and reorganizing staff and services in order to balance its budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very clear, right from the outset, when we put this emergency measure on the ballot, that we were staring down over a billion dollars a year in revenue losses as a direct result of\u201d federal spending cuts, Williams said. The missing link, he said, \u201cis that the state has to do its part.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The California State Association of Counties estimates federal cuts will cost the 58 counties<\/a> up to $9.5 billion \u2013\u00a0 a cost local officials say they can\u2019t foot alone. The association has been pushing for additional state funding for months without much success. Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislators must finalize the 2026-27 budget by next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor most California counties, raising local taxes to absorb the impacts of (federal cuts) is not feasible,\u201d said Graham Knaus, chief executive of the association. \u201cAnd the fact that counties are even being forced to contemplate it is unacceptable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kristen Hwang contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on CalMatters<\/a> and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives<\/a> license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ana B. Ibarra, CalMatters Derek Canizalez, 10, is administered a COVID-19 vaccine at one of St. John\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[12,2013,97,252,253,2014],"class_list":["post-703078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-donald-trump","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-medi-cal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}