MONROE - Green County government incurred a $900,000 deficit operating Pleasant View Nursing Home last year.
County Finance Committee Chairman Harvey Mandel said last November, as the Green County Board adopted its 2009 fiscal plan, that the nursing home is an issue that must be resolved as budgets continue to tighten and funding becomes a greater problem.
If Tuesday's meeting of the Finance Committee is any indication, resolving the problem of rising operating costs won't come easily. The committee discussed and tabled any plans for the nursing home's future until at least its February meeting.
Mandel and fellow committee members Art Carter, Dennis Everson, Sue Disch and Allen Benzschawel discussed the possibility of asking voters in a referendum to allow the county to levy more than the state-mandated 2 percent increase cap. The extra revenue would be used to help pay for nursing home operating costs.
They also talked about having an advisory referendum to gauge the public's interest in a referendum.
Neither suggestion was adopted by the committee Tuesday, because county board members need to learn more about the issue before it can be asked to make a decision.
Committee members discussed bringing Rep. Brett Davis, R-Oregon; Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee; and Brian Schoeneck, Wisconsin Association of Homes and Services for the Aging financial services director, to the February county board meeting to talk about the nursing home and what can be done to help increase funding. Schoeneck is scheduled to meet with the Pleasant View Nursing Home Committee at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the administrator's office at the nursing home.
Carter suggested the board work with Davis and Erpenbach on creating legislation that would make nursing home operating costs exempt from the revenue cap, as libraries, bridges and debt service already are. The county then could raise money for the nursing home without an impact on its levy limit.
Pleasant View Nursing Home Administrator Don Stoor said there are 130 residents in the nursing home and, for many of them who rely on Medicaid the county is the last resort for a home. The 32 counties in the state without nursing homes rely on for-profit nursing homes.
"In some counties, the people that the for-profit nursing homes don't want to deal with (because Medicaid doesn't pay enough for their care) might be sent hundreds of miles away to other counties," Stoor said.
County Finance Committee Chairman Harvey Mandel said last November, as the Green County Board adopted its 2009 fiscal plan, that the nursing home is an issue that must be resolved as budgets continue to tighten and funding becomes a greater problem.
If Tuesday's meeting of the Finance Committee is any indication, resolving the problem of rising operating costs won't come easily. The committee discussed and tabled any plans for the nursing home's future until at least its February meeting.
Mandel and fellow committee members Art Carter, Dennis Everson, Sue Disch and Allen Benzschawel discussed the possibility of asking voters in a referendum to allow the county to levy more than the state-mandated 2 percent increase cap. The extra revenue would be used to help pay for nursing home operating costs.
They also talked about having an advisory referendum to gauge the public's interest in a referendum.
Neither suggestion was adopted by the committee Tuesday, because county board members need to learn more about the issue before it can be asked to make a decision.
Committee members discussed bringing Rep. Brett Davis, R-Oregon; Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee; and Brian Schoeneck, Wisconsin Association of Homes and Services for the Aging financial services director, to the February county board meeting to talk about the nursing home and what can be done to help increase funding. Schoeneck is scheduled to meet with the Pleasant View Nursing Home Committee at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the administrator's office at the nursing home.
Carter suggested the board work with Davis and Erpenbach on creating legislation that would make nursing home operating costs exempt from the revenue cap, as libraries, bridges and debt service already are. The county then could raise money for the nursing home without an impact on its levy limit.
Pleasant View Nursing Home Administrator Don Stoor said there are 130 residents in the nursing home and, for many of them who rely on Medicaid the county is the last resort for a home. The 32 counties in the state without nursing homes rely on for-profit nursing homes.
"In some counties, the people that the for-profit nursing homes don't want to deal with (because Medicaid doesn't pay enough for their care) might be sent hundreds of miles away to other counties," Stoor said.