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3/10/2008
Guest Blog: It's not the county's business to be in the nursing home business
Why is Outagamie County in the business of running a Health Center?
Manitowoc County recently closed on the sale of the Manitowoc County Health Care Center to Minneapolis-based Health Dimensions Group. Calumet County sold their Homestead Rehabilitation Center in late 2007. And largely due to selling the Sunny Ridge Health Care Center last year, Sheboygan County’s tax levy actually dropped by over a half million dollars in 2008.
Two questions simply must be asked:
Why isn’t Outagamie County seriously investigating the potential to sell and/or privatize the County Health Center (Brewster Village)? Why doesn’t the county consider a taxpayer savings of millions of dollars annually?
Brewster Village is subsidized by Outagamie County taxpayers to the tune of $4 million per year - and growing! - due to increased costs and flat state Medicaid reimbursements.
The county’s budget for 2009 will be more difficult to craft than any experienced in the last two decades. The 2% tax levy cap imposed by the state will be real, and cannot be avoided by relying on growth and new construction - projected to be 2% or less in 2008. County administration and county board supervisors absolutely must be questioning any and all spending. No “sacred cows” allowed, including Brewster Village.
My opponent in the April election, Supervisor Richard Gosse (Dist. 12), stated in his most recent newsletter that “we have no plans to sell it [Brewster Village] and/or privatize it.”
Mr. Gosse’s position is extremely short sighted and fiscally irresponsible.
$Four million in annual savings plus the sale of the Center (original cost, $33 million) could be applied to essential county programs and would decrease borrowing needs for high priority capital projects.
In the past, the argument has been made that the companies that provide these privatized services would not provide them at the same quality level as the county demands. This may have been the case years ago; but these companies are a different animal today. Critical service checks and quality controls have been incorporated in the most recent contracts signed by both Calumet and Manitowoc Counties.
The tax dollars necessary to subsidize Brewster Village have skyrocketed in recent years. Outagamie County must make serious spending and program decisions in the upcoming budget. It is critical officials begin formally setting priorities NOW via open, informed study and discussion rather than waiting until the “perfect [budget] storm” hits this fall. No sacred cows allowed. All non-mandated spending must be on the table.
The time to prepare for Hurricane Fiscal Crisis is now - not when the wolf is at the door. Considering the sale of Brewster Village is the prudent and fiscally responsible thing to do for taxpayers of Outagamie County.
Mike Thomas is a former Outagamie County Supervisor and a current candidate to regain his former seat in the 12th District.
COMMENTS
On the Ponschock Small Petty And Mean Scale this rates high-- maybe off the scale and will have to recalibrate.
This is campaign malarkey and Supt Gosse appears to be doing a fine job.
As to Brewster Village it is an easy target-- like kicking small dogs. Why and how could this be considered a priority? And references to 'Hurricanes' even in metaphor is a spurious form of speech at best.
What are these other important projects to be funded for which Brewster Village has to be the sacrificial lamb?
Lon Ponschock (Mon Mar 10 13:04:24 2008)
Lon:
I don't think $4million in taxpayer subsidies is a "small dog", in fact it is a rather large dog that is getting bigger every year. I led a committee several years ago that investigated the potential to privatize but decided against it then due to the fact we did not feel the companies were ready and subsidy was no where near $4million annually. Times have changed and the companies are doing a much better job at it now. So I didn't just dig this up for the campaign, but rather have beat this drum for a long time. My opponent disagrees and really doesn't even want any discussion about it, which I think is wrong. So the voters will have a choice and isn't that what democracy is all about?
Mike Thomas (Mon Mar 10 16:54:00 2008)
To Mike Thomas,
In response to your criticism of my position on Brewster Village. It would be more accurate if all of the statements in my newsletter concerning Brewster Village were mentioned. I wish to include the entire text now and then to comment on your charges.
Brewster Village is a wonderful, caring facility whose mission statement is "to provide short and long-term nursing home services, to create person-centered, residential experiences that are designed to meet individuals' social and medical needs." The facility is costly to the taxpayer and County Executive Toby Paltzer is investigating ways to enhance revenues for Brewster Village.
As stated in the Department Head Meeting Minutes " With cuts to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements from the federal level, the impact to the levy has increased. Part of the problem is that the state siphons off the federal revenues".
June is the target date for strategizing a possible change in the financial approach to Brewster Village. We need to maintain control of this fine and valuable facility and therefore we have no plans to sell it and or privatize it at this time.
As you can clearly see from the entire text of my newsletter, I as well as most of the County Board are very aware of the effect that Brewster Village has on the tax levy, and we are trying to do something about it. For you, Mike Thomas, to say that I will not even discuss this issue is totally false. However, the Department of Health and Human Services and most County Board Supervisors share my concerns about privatizing the facility. This facility, in many cases, is the last safety net for many of its residents, and their care is our greatest concern.
Further regarding the tax levy and borrowing,you have criticized the efforts that have been made by the Finance Committee and the County Board during the past two years since you have not been in office. The truth is that we have done better in the last two years in both areas. Concerning bonding(borrowing). The County has bonded $50,415,000 since 2000. Of that amount $42,740,000 (or an average of $7,123,333) was bonded in the six years(2000-2006) that you were on the Finance Committee.
In contrast the record of the County Board and the Finance Committe(which I have served on for the past two years) is that we have bonded $7,675,000 or an average of $3,837,500/yr. Obviously we have done a better job in the last two years of managing tax dollars when bonding(borrowing) is discussed.
Also you, Mr. Thomas, appear to be suggesting that the county should have had a lower increase in the tax levy for 2008. For the past two years that I have been on the County Board and the Finance Committee,the percent change in the tax levy has averaged a 4.5% increase, but during the previous ten year span, while you served on the County Board and the Finance Committee, the tax levy averaged a yearly increase of 5.45% or 21% greater than the current increase. It would appear that the criticism of the current County Board and Finance Committee is unsupported by the facts.
Mr Thomas, I am happy to see that you are reading my newsletters that I send to all my constituents every six months to keep them informed and invite them to phone or e-mail me at anytime. It would have been nice had you in your seven unopposed terms as a county supervisor communicated with constituents. The number of times you did with 99% of us was exactly zero.
Richard Gosse, 12th District County Board Supervisor (Mon Mar 10 21:08:50 2008)
Mr. Gosse:
In response to your allegations that I misquoted you, your exact words from your newsletter stated, "We need to maintain control of this fine and valuable facility and therefore we have no plans to sell it and or privatize it." You seemed to have added the words "at this time" that were not in your orginal communication.
It's great that you have a newsletter, but it would have been better had you asked your constituants what they thought about the matter before weighing in on the issue. I still stand by my comments and wish there would be an open discussion with the public and at least on the board floor, rather than behind closed doors.
As far as your other comments concerning the bonding and tax levy, the devil is in the details. The $33million dollar expenditure for the Health Center as well as the new Youth and Family Services building were in the bonding for the years that you mentioned I was on the board.
You have had no major capital expenditures that effected the bonding and tax levy for the last two years, but you managed to set a precedence for the county of borrowing for normal operating expenses such as road repairs.
Annual expenses should be "pay as you go" and take it's place with all the other priorities for the county and not be put on a credit card. Even with the significant borrowing you managed to vote for a 4.95% increase in the tax levy for 2008.
Setting priorities and making difficult decisions is part of the job of being a supervisor representing the taxpayer. I hope the new board will be addressing this issue of priorities soon after election, because next year' budget will be the most difficult in two decades with the 2.0% levy cap in place.
I look forward to further debate on these issues and will let the voter decide who is the most fiscally responsible and should represent them.
Mike Thomas (Tue Mar 11 09:53:18 2008)
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