Federal and state lawmakers will converge in San Jose this weekend for an emergency town hall with the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors about how massive federal spending cuts will derail the public hospital system and social safety net services.
The community meeting, hosted by District 2 Supervisor Betty Duong, will bring the elected consortium to the county board chambers at 70 W. Hedding St. on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The panel will feature Congressmembers Zoe Lofgren and Sam Liccardo, County Supervisors Sylvia Arenas, Margaret Abe-Koga, Susan Ellenberg, Otto Lee and County Executive James Williams. State Senator Aisha Wahab and Assemblymembers Patrick Ahrens, Ash Kalra and Gail Pellerin will also dial in virtually. The meeting will be livestreamed.
Officials anticipate losing more than $1 billion in revenue over the next few years after President Donald Trump’s Fourth of July signing of H.R. 1, his watershed “big beautiful bill,” cuts deeply into the nation’s most critical social safety net programs. The county’s losses will mostly come from federal cuts to Medicaid, the public health insurance program known as Medi-Cal in California, which is the largest federal revenue source for the county health system of four hospitals and 15 health clinics.
In November, Santa Clara County voters will be asked to approve a five-eighths cent sales tax increase to protect the public hospital system from the cuts.
Supervisors earlier this month voted unanimously to add the proposed tax to the Nov. 4 special election ballot as a general tax, which requires a lower voter approval threshold but allows for more discretionary spending. The tax measure would bring in $330 million in annual revenue until 2031, if approved. But it wouldn’t solve the county’s biggest fiscal crisis since Proposition 13 puts limits on property taxes.
Santa Clara County runs two of the region’s three trauma centers and the only regional burn center of its kind in the Bay Area. The county hospitals are Silicon Valley’s largest and most accessible health care provider and the only option for working-class and uninsured patients. One in four of the county’s nearly 2 million residents are Medi-Cal enrollees. Half of the county hospital system’s patients pay through Medi-Cal. The rest pay through a mix of other means and Medicare, a separate federal program serving patients 65 and older and patients of all ages with certain disabilities.
The three-month sprint to raise sales taxes could pit one of California’s most progressive county boards against the centrist San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who is not listed as a speaker at the town hall and has declined to state his position on the tax measure. Instead, he’s cast doubt on the county’s massive investment into the hospital system, which has become the second largest in California.
Three of the county’s four hospitals are located in San Jose, including the county’s level I and II trauma centers.
“The effects of H.R. 1 know no borders or city limits. Its negative impacts will be felt in every one of our 15 cities and by every resident across Santa Clara County,” Supervisor Susan Ellenberg told San Jose Spotlight. “Given the breadth of this bill and the essential services it threatens, I urge elected officials throughout the county to act with urgency and work together to address these challenges.”
Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X.
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