TAXES SUPPORT HEALTH CARE
The following appeared as a Letter to the Editor in the Monterey County Herald on June 22,2003:
The League of Women Voters of the Monterey Peninsula supports raising revenue (taxes) to offset the severe impacts of the governor's May budget revision proposal on health care. These Medi-Cal cuts could include:
- Reducing Medi-Cal provider rates by 15 percent when access is already being limited.
- Reducing eligibility of tens of thousands of very low-income seniors and people with disabilities.
These cuts would further undermine the financial infrastructure of our county's Natividad Medical Center. Rejecting these proposed cuts will require the state to come up with about $1.2 billion in additional funds.
What is a reasonable resolution?
Fully restore the top tax backets of 10 percent and 11 percent for couples with after-deduction incomes of $260,000 and $520,000. This would affect the top 2.4 percent of California taxpayers, already the greatest beneficiaries of recent federal tax cuts. The governor's May revision only contains a partial restoration of the top income tax brackets, rather than the full restoration of the top rates, proposed in his January budget. The League urges Monterey County citizens to contact their state legislators and the governor to support this solution.
Beverly Bean, President
League of Women Voters of the Monterey Peninsula
