Proposed transit tax/wharfage fee has 40-year sunset clause
BY CHARLES M. KELLY
Participants in a recent virtual town hall emphasized the importance of building a new hospital and argued that a November ballot measure to fund the project includes a sunset clause. The lack of a sunset clause was seen as a factor in the defeat of a 2018 ballot measure to fund the project.
Supporters also say that if Measure H fails, planning will begin to close the Catalina Island Medical Center.
No opponents of Measure H participated in the meeting. Eight people attended the Oct. 8 meeting about Measure H. The meeting took place after The Catalina Islander’s deadline for the Oct. 9 issue, so we’re reporting it this week.
As previously reported, Measure H would create a round trip charge that would begin at 50 cents in April 2022, increase to $1 the following year and would cap at $2 in April 2024. The proposed mooring tax would be $1 a day per vessel. The mooring tax would also start April 1, 2022. The revenue would go to pay back the money that will be borrowed to build a new hospital.
“Each tax will end after 40 years or when the loan is fully paid off, whichever comes sooner,” according to a recent press release from Yes on Measure H.
That’s consistent with an Aug. 4 staff report to the City Council on the proposed ballot measure.
Last week’s town hall event was hosted by Councilmember Michael Ponce, a past member of the Catalina Island Medical Center.
He said the medical center was dear to his heart. He said that in 2000, the council passed a sales tax to keep the hospital open.
Ponce explained that in 2000, the state notified hospitals that they had to upgrade to meet seismic standards. Originally the deadline was 2015.
Carol Reynolds, chair of the hospital board of directors, said the mandate was in response to the Northridge earthquake. (The quake took place in 1994.)
Reynolds said there were no exceptions or exemptions to the mandate.
According to Ponce, hospitals pushed back and the state changed the deadline to 2030.
Reynolds said it takes about 10 years to build a hospital.
Ponce said the Island has a lot of seniors who will need a new facility. His mother is in the skilled nursing facility in the current Medical Center.
Carol Reynolds, chair of the hospital board of directors, said the hospital new serves 4,500 residents.
“It is our only source of health care on the Island,” she said.
Reynolds said retrofitting the current hospital would be almost as expensive and the Medical Center would have to be closed during the retrofit.
Dr. Aimee Warren raised concern about the possibility of the hospital being closed if the state’s seismic mandate isn’t met.
“Less than a Medical Center won’t cut it,” she said.
Warren said studies of closures of rural hospitals show less public access to health care. (Warren began her medical career in a rural hospital.)
Rob Hill said the closure of the Medical Center would result in more than 100 jobs being lost.
“The tourism industry would be impacted,” he said.
Warren disagreed with the perception of some community members who apparently believe an urgent care center would be sufficient.
She said urgent care centers aren’t set up to provide emergency care. Warren said urgent care facilities were not usually staffed 24 hours a day. She also said doctors wouldn’t sing up to work on an Island so far from support.
Reynolds said the new facility would invest in new services such as mammography and chemotherapy. Currently, chemotherapy patients have to go to the mainland.
Rob Hill said if Measure H fails, the process to go forward with construction will stop and a plan will be developed to close the Medical Center. Hill said providers will start looking for new positions.
