California Apartment Association

Residents in west Contra Costa County will vote this spring on a parcel tax that could help rescue the financially beleaguered Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo.

Registered voters will receive mail-in ballots sometime over the next two months and must return them by May 6th to be counted.  The required threshold is two-thirds vote.  The two-thirds is determined by the number of returned mail-in ballots.

The tax, which would cost property owners $0.14 cents per square foot, would be permanent, even if the hospital merges with another medical facility or is purchased.

All residents — including those in multifamily housing — should scour their mail for the ballot, which can be easy to miss.

“Sometimes these type of ballots get lost or thrown away,” said Theresa Karr, executive director of the California Apartment Association’s Contra Costa division. “They are often mistaken for junk mail.”  

While the tax is for property owners, renters have a stake in this vote, since costs can be passed along to them.

If the measure is approved, it will mark the third time in 10 years that taxpayers opened their wallets to the hospital.

In 2004, voters approved a $52 parcel tax, and in 2011, voters added $47 more for a total of $99 with no sunset.

Now, let’s look at how the new tax alone would affect an apartment complex with 100 units, each 900 square feet.

At 14 cents per square foot, each apartment would cost the owner $126. Multiply that by 100 apartments, and the bill comes to $12,600, not counting other buildings and common-area space. All told, the parcel tax would generate an estimated $20 million per year.

That’s roughly the same amount the hospital loses annually, even with the two existing tax measures. Moreover, the hospital has borrowed $40 million since 2011 — and that money is now gone. The loan will not be paid until 2042.

If the hospital stays open, more tax proposals are likely, as the current hospital doesn’t meet earthquake safety standards.