Here’s the caveat: Given how awfully difficult it is to raise any new taxes in Alameda and weighing the importance of schools, I have always felt the hospital tax to be an “albatross”. I’ve spoken to hospital board members to try to better come to terms, and the line defending the hospital is that in a well rounded community health and education are both important, which of course is true. I’m just glad we don’t have to justify paying the AUSD superintendent $400K a year.

I am an AARP member. When I need a ride to emergency for my age related ailment I am ready to play Russian Roulette with my ride to and treatment at Highland in exchange for the schools getting another $300 a year. It blows my mind we could pass a $300 tax to save a failing private concern, yet each smaller school tax has been fought for tooth and nail. We may have far to little respect for the collective wisdom of the elderly in our culture, but the future does not lie with those in retirement (other than the tremendous cost of keeping us alive a couple extra decades than any time previous in human history).