No County Health Tax Vote This Year
Posted on: Tuesday, 4 April 2006, 21:00 CDT
By Cyndy Cole, The Arizona Daily Sun, Flagstaff
Apr. 3--The Coconino County Health Department is dropping a proposal to raise sales taxes for expanded services and a detox center -- at least for this year.
County supervisors have asked for more information on whether sales taxes should be raised 10 cents per $100 countywide and what the estimated $2.1 million to $3.3 million generated from it would do.
The money could have been used to investigate and treat communicable diseases, fight tooth decay in kids, treat alcoholism, provide more health programs of all kinds outside of Flagstaff and address diabetes, for starters.
A months-long study by a commission will determine where the Health Department could improve, Director Barbara Worgess said, and whether a tax is needed.
That study is expected to wrap up in the coming winter, not soon enough for the November ballot.
"Unless she comes up with a case for substantiating a dire need out there, I would expect it would be something that would be deferred," Matt Ryan, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors, said when the tax was proposed in January.
The city of Flagstaff and county supervisors have pledged some of the initial funds needed to build a detox center.
But a comprehensive substance abuse prevention and treatment programs appears to lack long-term source of operating funds, something the new county health tax was seen as providing.
The Health Department is projected to spend almost $250,000 more than it will receive in grants this year.
Its $11.7 million budget has grown 44 percent in that time. It now has 134 full-time employees, with big increases in funding for issues like bioterrorism.
"It can look like we're gaining money, but we're also losing money in core services," Worgess said.
The health department has lost half its budget for investigating and treating communicable diseases, she said.
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Source: The Arizona Daily Sun
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