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Group of lawmakers say they oppose Prop. 480
Gary Grado//October 15, 2014
Senate President Andy Biggs and 26 other Republican lawmakers oppose passage of a $935 million bond to rebuild Maricopa Medical Center and improve the county’s public health system.
In a statement issued through the No on Prop 480 campaign, the legislators said the ballot measure is asking for too much money, grows government, and comes at a time of uncertainty in the public-health care system.
The list of lawmakers includes five from outside Maricopa County and three who joined the Democratic caucus to vote in 2013 to expand Medicaid to include adults who earn up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level. The Medicaid expansion was a contentious issue and divided the GOP.
“We are taxed enough already,” the statement read.
The 30-year finance plan, which is estimated to run $1.6 billion with interest, would pay for rebuilding the 42-year-old Maricopa Medical Center at 26th and Roosevelt streets. The project would also upgrade and expand 11 neighborhood clinics, consolidate two mental health centers to expand capacity, increase services for seriously mentally ill residents, and build new specialty care clinics in the East Valley and Northwest Valley.
The Yes on 480 campaign immediately released a statement from Mark Dewane, chairman of the Maricopa County Special Health Care district’s governing board, to counter the lawmakers.
Dewane said he is a fiscally conservative Republican who believes in keeping taxes low, but there are exceptions.
“However, there comes a time when overriding humanitarian issues take center stage and warrant a solution to a societal problem,” Dewane said in the statement.
Dewane argued that the district, which serves as a safety net to uninsured patients, draws about $80 million a year from the federal government into state coffers, and that money would dry up without the district.
Dewane also argued that continued maintenance of the aging hospital isn’t sustainable, the health system is the only place that handles court-ordered evaluation for seriously mentally people, and the hospital is used for teaching doctors.
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