Taxpayers Prevail With Campaign To Detach From Sonoma Medical Center
Supporters of the movement contended that residents in the Russian River corridor receive little benefit from the Palm Drive Health Care District.
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Sonoma West Medical Center Expects Sharp Cut In Tax Funding After Pullout Prevails
A two-year campaign by Russian River-area residents seeking to abandon the taxing district that supports the struggling Sonoma West Medical Center in Sebastopol has prevailed, and the fallout is expected to immediately add to the financial challenges facing the small hospital serving western Sonoma County. The “detachment” effort, waged by a group calling itself Taxpayers Against Unfair Taxes, or TAUT, will reduce the annual contribution made by the Palm Drive Health Care District to the hospital by 40 percent, to $600,000. Currently, the district collects $4.2 million in parcel taxes from residents stretching from Sebastopol and along the Russian River to the coast. (Espinoza, 2/3)
In other news —
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Sonoma County’s Chanate Road Ex-Hospital Site Could Become 800-Unit Housing Development
Sonoma County supervisors are considering an ambitious plan to sell the 82-acre site of the former Sutter Medical Center off Chanate Road in Santa Rosa to a prominent local developer who wants to build as many as 800 new housing units there. The Board of Supervisors is expected to vote Tuesday on moving forward with a proposal that, if ultimately finalized, would mark the county’s largest land sale in recent history. Developer Bill Gallaher and his team would pay as much as $12.5 million in cash for the property, though county officials say the deal is worth many millions more when various cost savings are taken into account. (Morris, 2/5)