WHERE WILL THE FUNDS GO?
- Additional levy funding will provide greater access to healthcare by increasing services and providers here in Snoqualmie Valley so patients can travel less to find quality care close to home. Why should you have to travel out of the area for care?
- Additional levy funding will allow Snoqualmie Valley Hospital to expand its Emergency Department to provide more care to more people when time matters most. The Emergency Room capacity needs to meet the needs of the growing Snoqualmie Valley population and expansion will keep wait times low. Our Emergency Room was voted Top 10 in Washington state by our own patients through Press Ganey, an independent survey company. Continuing this quality care while making sure patients don’t need to wait is important to all of us.
- To meet the needs expressed in the Community Health Needs Assessment, increased levy funding will expand women’s health services by adding mammography in our radiology department. There is a demand for women’s health care and mammography makes the most sense in order to have women stay in the valley for important preventative diagnostics.
- Additional levy funding will allow Snoqualmie Valley Health to upgrade its aging MRI and life-saving CT scanner, which will improve scan quality, lower scan times and provide more comfort to patients. New equipment and a state-of-the-art radiology department redesign is needed. CT scans are critical during Stroke events when every second counts.
- Additional levy funding will grow services, therefore creating more long-term careers in Snoqualmie Valley. We want our staff to live, work and play here in Snoqualmie Valley and providing more jobs will help keep people here.
- If this levy passes, SVH will have the ability to create a new tax credit policy, which will allow district taxpayers to receive a 100% refund of all the levy fees they pay to the hospital district through property taxes. Specifically, if a hospital district taxpayer uses any SVH services, the hospital will apply a full credit for the levy amount paid to the amount owed for SVH services received. For example, if a homeowner pays $500 for the hospital levy on their King County property tax bill and uses SVH services, they can use that entire $500 as a credit toward their balance owed for any services anywhere in the SVH network. This benefit offsets the full hospital tax paid.
Ballots will be mailed April 5 and should be returned to official drop boxes or to the USPS by 8 p.m. April 25. Don’t forget to vote!
Frequently Asked Questions
If SVH was in the black last year, why do you need additional funds?
Yes, SVH did not lose money last year. We actually came out in the black, which is great! The levy is not an operations levy where we are funding the cost to do business. We are looking for additional funds so that we can increase the services we provide, upgrade aging equipment and make sure our trauma center is available when you need us the most. This levy is an investment in your public hospital district and the services we provide to meet the needs of our growing community.
Why haven’t you asked voters for an increase until now?
No one likes to ask voters to approve additional fees on their property tax bill. When property valuations skyrocketed, our levy rate went down and we were unable to invest in new services while the community continued to grow. We simply couldn’t plan the hospital’s future without knowing we could count on community support.
Will you invest in other communities if the levy passes?
It is our intent to expand services into other communities in the district. By providing more services through our planned expansion, we will be able to afford to bring services back into communities in which we had physical spaces in the past.
About the tax rebate: Why increase my property tax if you’re just going to give it back?
One of the objectives of any business (non-profit or not) is to expand the number of customers. In our case, our customers are patients. By expanding services, we are able to provide care to more patients, keeping care local and viable.
One way we can increase the number of patients is by offering a unique and creative incentive, like a tax rebate program. We believe that once a patient experiences the SVH staff and medical professionals, we will establish a long-term relationship with the patient. In addition, this might provide the incentive for our existing patients to try additional services. In either case, a patient that has a great experience at SVH is our best form or promotion. The tax refund is a cost-effective way to expand our patient base, which in turn can provide a significant financial benefit to SVH, a not-for-profit community hospital that invests its profits back into its community, services and staff.
MORE INFO
For information about how to return your ballot, visit https://kingcounty.gov/depts/elections/how-to-vote/ballots/returning-my-ballot.aspx
For more information, please contact Steve Wright, SVH Foundation Director.
