Budget and Management
Good morning. I’d like to comment today about the tentative budget.
First, the section about the ACC contains several errors on page 98. The county’s consultation agreement with Infinitecare ends automatically on July 31, 2027, according to the consultation agreement, so it is by no means permanent. If the manager is referring to the lease agreement as permanent, let me remind you that the lease agreement has not gone into effect since Infinitecare has failed to gain approval for the CON since November of 2023, when PHHPC voted to not recommend it. A contract which is not in effect surely can’t be called permanent.
Secondly, the consultation contract is not a management agreement. The Department of Health does not allow any entity other than the holder of the Certificate of Need to manage a nursing home, and Sullivan County holds that Certificate and is the manager and is responsible for every single thing that happens there. Infinitecare is only a consultant. So management of the facility has never been transferred to Infinitecare.
Third, the section about the county share is very misleading. Stating that there’s zero county share this year and in the tentative 2026 budget makes it appear like Infinitecare has relieved a single penny of the county’s financial burden, which is far from the truth. The County has been paying for everything all along and Infinitecare has been paying for nothing, despite the 9-million-dollar shortfall debt they have accrued, and apparently there are no plans at all for how the County will collect that. That’s what the taxpayers need to understand.
Since the ACC is an enterprise fund, it’s portrayed as a business which is expected to make a profit, unlike any other department in Sullivan County. It would make a lot more sense for the airport to be an enterprise fund than the nursing home, where profitability is extremely unlikely, since the revenue the facility receives from Medicare and Medicaid is at a fixed low rate. At least at the airport you could negotiate hanger rates and sell fuel at least. Having the ACC accountable as an enterprise fund makes it a target in a way that none of the other departments are, although very few of them earn any revenue at all. This legislature could change that and I urge you to consider it.
As a taxpayer, I don’t have a problem with a small portion of my taxes going to the county nursing home, while I do take issue with a tentatively budgeted 7.5 million dollars to move staff around, with the stated goal of eventually vacating the Liberty campus. Where does that come from? I’ve never heard this legislature mention it, although I did hear something like that from a member of the last legislature, although it seemed like a joke at the time. Apparently, our County Manager has embraced that idea in the tentative 2026 budget. I would like to hear some discussion of this before the 7 and a half million dollars is approved. I’m sure that I’m not the only taxpayer, including the hundreds of people who work at the Liberty campus, who would like some explanation of what seems like an unnecessary and very poorly timed expenditure.