The state budget pending in Madison contains a special hit on sick and elderly people living in nursing homes across Wisconsin. The monthly tax on every nursing home bed would double from $75 to $150 per month starting July 1, if legislators adopt the plan introduced by Governor Doyle. The bed tax would rise further, to $170 per month, in July 2010.
The bed tax enables the state to capture federal dollars for state medical assistance costs. That might make sense if all the additional federal funds supported nursing home residents, but that's not the plan.
The plan is to return only 41 cents of every additional federal dollar to nursing homes and use the other 59 cents for other state spending. Nursing homes only will see a 2 percent increase in medical assistance reimbursement rates in each year of the budget, not enough to even cover inflation.
As proposed, the state budget would force nursing homes to make deep cuts that could result in too few staff, less experienced staff, and cuts to food and other core services that preserve the welfare and dignity of nursing home residents.
Sticking it to our most sick and elderly community members, especially those paying for their care from their own savings, is hardly fair public policy. Legislators crafting the budget in Madison apparently hope your attention will be diverted to other issues.
Taking funds intended for nursing homes to spend on other programs is like the $1.2 billion raided from our transportation trust fund for unrelated spending. Bad budget practices like these have become common, even expected, destroying trust and leading many legislators to oppose any revenue enhancement proposals.
Wisconsin's irresponsible budget practices have led national firms that analyze the credit-worthiness of states to lower Wisconsin's bond rating, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions in higher debt interest costs.
The current budget plan also breaks a promise the state made to county and municipal nursing homes in 2005 in which supplemental federal payments to the state would go to those nursing homes based on their operating deficits. Governor Doyle proposed breaking the promise by eliminating the Certified Public Expenditure payments to allow the state to spend the estimated $15 million in 2009 payments on other programs.
If you own property where a county or city owns a nursing home, you will help make up for the loss of that $15 million of CPE funds. The loss under this budget to Lafayette Manor, Darlington, would be $210,000.
To put a stop to irresponsible budget practices, I am co-sponsoring a constitutional amendment to require the state to use Generally Accepted Accounting Principals budgeting. GAAP would shine the light on fund diversions and other budget tricks, helping taxpayers hold a governor and legislators accountable to properly budget and account for all funds it receives or expends.
- Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, represents all or part of Grant, Iowa, Lafayette, Richland, Sauk and Juneau counties.
The bed tax enables the state to capture federal dollars for state medical assistance costs. That might make sense if all the additional federal funds supported nursing home residents, but that's not the plan.
The plan is to return only 41 cents of every additional federal dollar to nursing homes and use the other 59 cents for other state spending. Nursing homes only will see a 2 percent increase in medical assistance reimbursement rates in each year of the budget, not enough to even cover inflation.
As proposed, the state budget would force nursing homes to make deep cuts that could result in too few staff, less experienced staff, and cuts to food and other core services that preserve the welfare and dignity of nursing home residents.
Sticking it to our most sick and elderly community members, especially those paying for their care from their own savings, is hardly fair public policy. Legislators crafting the budget in Madison apparently hope your attention will be diverted to other issues.
Taking funds intended for nursing homes to spend on other programs is like the $1.2 billion raided from our transportation trust fund for unrelated spending. Bad budget practices like these have become common, even expected, destroying trust and leading many legislators to oppose any revenue enhancement proposals.
Wisconsin's irresponsible budget practices have led national firms that analyze the credit-worthiness of states to lower Wisconsin's bond rating, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions in higher debt interest costs.
The current budget plan also breaks a promise the state made to county and municipal nursing homes in 2005 in which supplemental federal payments to the state would go to those nursing homes based on their operating deficits. Governor Doyle proposed breaking the promise by eliminating the Certified Public Expenditure payments to allow the state to spend the estimated $15 million in 2009 payments on other programs.
If you own property where a county or city owns a nursing home, you will help make up for the loss of that $15 million of CPE funds. The loss under this budget to Lafayette Manor, Darlington, would be $210,000.
To put a stop to irresponsible budget practices, I am co-sponsoring a constitutional amendment to require the state to use Generally Accepted Accounting Principals budgeting. GAAP would shine the light on fund diversions and other budget tricks, helping taxpayers hold a governor and legislators accountable to properly budget and account for all funds it receives or expends.
- Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, represents all or part of Grant, Iowa, Lafayette, Richland, Sauk and Juneau counties.
