Published: Thursday, February 12, 2015 at 4:01 p.m. Last Modified: Thursday, February 12, 2015 at 4:01 p.m.

MANATEE COUNTY - With a fund to provide health care for the uninsured and working poor set to nearly run out by the end of the fiscal year, Manatee County leaders are debating where they can find money to keep it solvent including trying again to get a voter-approved sales tax.

By this fall, the trust fund which started with $45 million from the sale of the county hospital more than 30 years ago is likely to have just $158,000 left.

If it does not get a new infusion of cash, county commissioners and health care providers worry that many lower-income people will avoid doctor visits that could keep them healthy or be unable to get potentially life-saving care, such as surgeries for cancer.

With the clock ticking for the county to come up with a new strategy, the county commissioners on Thursday made a commitment to restore funding but did not resolve the issue of how.

The real question is where does the $9 million come from? Commissioner Larry Bustle said, presuming the county wants to restore annual subsidies from the trust fund at a previous level.

You have property tax, sales tax or nothing, Commissioner Carol Whitmore said. Whitmore said she cannot favor putting the burden solely on property taxpayers.

The only option I see is a sales tax, Commissioner Charles Smith said.

We'd better think about the people who hire us, Commissioner Betsy Baugh warned, noting that in a June 2013 referendum voters rejected a half-cent sales tax to replenish the diminishing trust fund.

You didn't market it well, Smith, who was elected last fall, told other commissioners regarding the referendum's failure. The public will buy into something that makes sense... Do we have the backbone to do what's right?

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Manatee seeks options to extend health care trust fund