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Coos County Residents to Vote on Public Health

By: CHP | Posted on: October 14th, 2008 | 4 comments | Share: Tweet This!
Categories: Public Health

Coos County Residents to Vote on Public Health

Voters in Coos County will decide whether to adopt a tax levy to support public health services in its county, as reported today by the Eugene Register-Guard.

This could mean the difference between maintaining local authority for public health, or turning it over to the State. The local model would cost 9 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value for a total of $1.35 million over the three years from property owners. That would raise about $450,000 a year for the next three years. While this is not even enough to support current services, it will still allow the county to maintain a basic, decent level of services.

Currently, the county public health department oversees a wide variety of services including monitoring drinking water quality, restaurant inspections, immunizations, family planning, emergency preparedness, communicable disease tracking and nutrition programs. Timber revenues once covered many of these services, and although the U.S. Congress reinstated Timber revenues in last week’s Bailout Plan, none of that funding is likely to be directed to public health services. 

The good news is that this money would aid in getting matching funds from Federal and other funding sources, and keep services of the community within the community. While passing this levey would mean that folks will have to dig deeper into their pockets during tough economic times, research shows that investing in public health has proven to save costly expenses down the road, and improve the health of the workforce and the entire community. 

If you live in Coos County, let us know what you think.



4 Comments:

1  Posted by Alejandro Queral on November 5th, 2008 at 04:35 PM

The measure failed, with 68% voting no and 31% voting yes.  While this is not a referendum on funding public health as much as it is a rejection of taxes by a conservative community facing a serious recession, it does pose serious challenges to the public health community.  The hardest of these will be to convince legislators in Coos and other rural counties that investing resources in public health is fiscally responsible because of the significant return on investing in community-based public health priorities.

Alejandro Queral
American Heart Association

2  Posted by Craig Mosbaek on October 25th, 2008 at 07:25 PM

There is still time to donate money to help pass the referendum to fund public health in Coos County.

Make checks out to Yes for Public Health Committee
Mail to:
  62560 Crown Pt. Rd.
  Coos Bay, OR 97420

Email Molly Ford at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and let her know that money is on the way, so that they can reserve print and radio ad time.

Craig Mosbaek
Upstream Public Health

3  Posted by Sherrill on October 21st, 2008 at 04:04 PM

I have worked for Coos County Public Health for the past 10 years.  I have seen a steady erosion of the public health system due to loss of funding.  While this truly impacts the most vulnerable populations, it affects the entire community.
Public Health touches virtually every aspect of our community life.  However, the work is done quietly in the background - only making the public scene when there is a crisis or some type of disease outbreak.
We must not give up local control - we can only depend upon ourselves in the case of emergency or disease outbreak.  The system serves the community on a daily basis - and the system must be maintained on daily basis or it will not be there where there is an emergency or crisis.  Please thank a local public health worker in your community today.

4  Posted by Lindi on October 21st, 2008 at 12:26 PM

I support the Coos County Public Health levy. Access to affordable health care in our community is a real challenge. Frances Smith, administrator for the Coos County Public Health Department, works diligently to stretch their funds to cover many mandated and absolutely neccesary services.

A group of local health care professionals and service club members of the Zonta Club of the Coos Bay Area are working on promoting active lifestyles for women. Through the Coos County Women’s Health Coalition we are organizing efforts to educate and motivate women to start moving their bodies by walking. A simple, inexpensive, out your front door method of improving your health. One step at a time!



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