Thanks for sharing this. I realize this is not a popular view among readers of this blog, but I think this is an important discussion to have among people who agree that we have a strong moral imperative to take care of our elderly. There's only so much revenue available to local government, so people with the same values can disagree in good faith about what is the best way to spend it to address the problems we all care about.
There is $60 million in the county fund balance that shows NorCo has the means to keep the home running in the short term. A management team will help get revenues up and identify efficiencies not yet identified.
Let's face it Stoffa, Angle and the administration are not nursing home experts. While Stoffa should know a little something as he was Director of Human Services in Lehigh and Northampton Counties he is no nursing home expert.
That said his budgets have been horribly wrong so using his numbers is definitely no basis to get a good means based argument started. I have seen fact sheets back up by county financial reports that show over $40 million in difference between what's projected and what actually happens. This makes it hard to believe the pro-sale side.
As for the fund balance not "being there" as Angle and O'Hare like to argue, Lehigh County has a reserve of $23 million. NorCo has almost 3 times that of Lehigh County (which has a larger budget and larger population). They are subject to the same accounting rules that Angle and Stoffa have hidden behind and they have a healthier bond rating than NorCo. No one is arguing Lehigh County is bad off as a government.
It comes down to lack of will to fund Gracedale in the short term. If the county wants to argue they don*t belong in the nursing home business that is fine. I think the referendum will show the citizens don't agree with that at all. However, saying the county is broke and poor when they have more cash than any local government in the area is a sad lie by people desperate to sell this asset. One might question what other motives the pro-sale side might have. However, that is off topic for this post.
Thanks for sharing this. I realize this is not a popular view among readers of this blog, but I think this is an important discussion to have among people who agree that we have a strong moral imperative to take care of our elderly. There's only so much revenue available to local government, so people with the same values can disagree in good faith about what is the best way to spend it to address the problems we all care about.
ReplyDeleteJon,
ReplyDeleteThere is $60 million in the county fund balance that shows NorCo has the means to keep the home running in the short term. A management team will help get revenues up and identify efficiencies not yet identified.
Let's face it Stoffa, Angle and the administration are not nursing home experts. While Stoffa should know a little something as he was Director of Human Services in Lehigh and Northampton Counties he is no nursing home expert.
That said his budgets have been horribly wrong so using his numbers is definitely no basis to get a good means based argument started. I have seen fact sheets back up by county financial reports that show over $40 million
in difference between what's projected and what actually happens. This makes it hard to believe the pro-sale side.
As for the fund balance not "being there" as Angle and O'Hare like to argue, Lehigh County has a reserve of $23 million. NorCo has almost 3 times that of Lehigh County (which has a larger budget and larger population). They
are subject to the same accounting rules that Angle and Stoffa have hidden behind and they have a healthier bond rating than NorCo. No one is arguing Lehigh County is bad off as a government.
It comes down to lack of will to fund Gracedale in the short term. If the county wants to argue they don*t belong in the nursing home business that is fine. I think the referendum will show the citizens don't agree with that at all. However, saying the county is broke and poor when they have more cash than any local government in the area is a sad lie by people desperate to sell this asset. One might question what other motives the pro-sale side might have. However, that is off topic for this post.
Thanks for listening,
The Engaged Citizen