Nov. 15 Deadline for Measure J Ballot on Doctors Hospital
The mail-in ballots must reach the Contra Costa County elections office by Nov. 15 to be counted. They can also be delivered by hand.
Although yesterday, Tuesday, was election day in many cities and towns, West Contra Costa voters also have a special vote-by-mail election, with a Nov. 15 deadline to reach the county elections department.
Measure J asks voters whether to adopt a $47 annual residential parcel tax to keep the Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo open. Owners of rental, commercial and industrial parcels would pay between $94 per parcel up to $940 per parcel.
Registered voters residing in the West Contra Costa Healthcare District are eligible to cast a ballot. The district includes residents from Kensington to Crockett.
The argument in favor of the measure says the new tax is needed to keep the emergency room at Doctors, the only full-service ER in West County, open. If the ER closes, West County patients would be sent to a smaller emergency facility at Kaiser in Richmond or to the county hospital in Martinez or Alta Bates in Berkeley. Advocates for the measure have said that those hospitals and ambulance services would be stretched thin by the new demands on them.
Measure J was filed for special ballot consideration following devastating cuts in state funding for the healthcare district earlier this year.
No argument against the measure has been filed with the county elections department.
The measure requires a two-thirds majority to be approved. The new tax would come on top of an existing $52 annual parcel tax for single-family residences. If Doctors Medical Center closes, the new tax would be revoked.
Doctors Medical Center, formerly Brookside Hospital, is a non-profit facility that has had serious financial difficulties since the early 1990s. The facility serves mostly Medicare, Medi-Cal and uninsured patients, and is reimbursed far below the actual cost of those services.
For more background on the Doctors Medical Center measure, you can see our past stories by clicking "Doctors Medical Center" next to Related Topics below this article. For alerts on future stories about it, click the green "Keep me posted!" button below the article.
