Health care groups begin push for higher sales tax

Voters might be asked this fall to increase the state portion of the sales tax from 6.5 percent to 6.8 percent for two years to restore an estimated $650 million the Legislature is expected to cut from health care programs.

A coalition of health care advocates, including hospitals, clinics, home care workers, nursing homes, nurses and retirees, is behind a tax package that might appear on the November ballot.

That same coalition began running TV ads Wednesday that its members hope will alert the public to the magnitude of cuts the Legislature is considering in an effort to close a projected $9 billion deficit over the next 27 months.

“Our emergency rooms are about to get a lot more crowded,” the ads begin, with a child crying the in background. “Because our elected officials are cutting $1 billion from health care.”

The ad goes on to say the Legislature is going to cut 40,000 families from the state-subsidized Basic Health Plan, and will be responsible for 5,000 layoffs at hospitals and nursing homes. It urged people to “prevent a health care crisis in the making” by calling their lawmakers.

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said Wednesday that the 0.3 percent increase in the sales tax is an idea that is being tossed about among Senate Democrats, but nothing is firm. She envisions a ballot measure this fall that would focus on health care cuts – the Basic Health Plan and cuts for nursing homes, clinic and hospitals – and would raise taxes temporarily.

She said her fellow Senate Democrats would not approve a sales tax increase unless it were paired with a tax credit for working families to offset what they consider a regressive tax. The sales tax falls more heavily on the poor, she said.

Republican legislative leaders said they’ve been expecting both the ads and the tax pitch.

House Minority Leader Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis, said voters should be wary of any promises on how money from tax increases would be spent.

“There’s no guarantee money will go toward a certain use,” he said. “It’s not true.”

Cassie Sauer, spokeswoman for the Washington State Hospital Association, said the television ads will run for a week in the Seattle-Tacoma-Everett market and the coalition will resume its polling of voters to see what sort of proposal they might be willing to support.

The coalition does not include the 82,000-member Washington Education Association, the state Labor Council or the Washington Federation of State Employees, which has 40,000 members and is the largest of the state worker unions. That’s because education won’t be the focus of any ballot measure.

“We are urging the Legislature to find a way to protect our most vulnerable during this budget crisis,” said Adam Glickman, spokesman for the Service Employees International Union Local 775, which represents about 26,000 home care workers and is part of the coalition.

“The cuts to nursing homes, home care and adult day services for Alzheimer’s patients and other seriously ill seniors will result in nursing homes being forced to close, and many vulnerable seniors being without assistance. This is just wrong, and there has to be a better way.”

Said Sauer, “The public is aware that our state is facing a budget crunch, but they need to know just how deep the cuts go and how severely families will be impacted across our state.”

The coalition also includes the Community Health Network of Washington, Group Health Cooperative, the American Association of Retired Persons and the Washington State Nurses Association.

The Legislature is scheduled to adjourn April 26.

Excessive state spending is what helped create the projected $9 billion shortfall, said Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla.

DeBolt said the Legislature should be able to write a two-year budget without raising taxes.

“How can we put more of a burden on people who are just trying to survive?” DeBolt said.

Joseph Turner: 253-597-8436

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