Don’t lease — buy.
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors adopted that maxim with a unanimous vote Tuesday, opting to purchase the property where the county’s new 10-story Valley Health Center campus is set to open this year on Bascom Avenue in San Jose.
The health center will expand California’s second largest public hospital system with adult medicine, urgent care, OB-GYN services and more for tens of thousands of residents. Officials say the $340 million land purchase — financed through a 30-year revenue bond — will save $112 million in the county’s already-strained budget over the next three decades. The county expects to pay off the bond with $20 million per year, compared to the $25.5 million officials would have paid per year under the county’s current 30-year lease-to-rent property agreement…