In late November, former NorCo Council mewmber John Brown predicted that Gracedale, the county-owned nursing home, would require a contribution of $10-15 million from the general fund to balance its books for last year. Was he right? Well, at Thursday evening's County Council meeting, Executive Tara Zrinski conceded that a county contribution would be needed.
Zrinski was presenting a detailed report on the county, department-by-department. When it came to Gracedale, she stated that the county is "working" on eight new hires to reduce dependence on expensive nursing provided by outside agencies.
She went on to say that "we've actually showed some real fiscal progress in so far as the medical aid pending Medicare [I think she means Medicare and Medicaid], pending dollars, is almost double the anticipated reimbursement for Medicaid. So that means the annual loss, and whatever we have to make for a county contribution, is half of what we expected."
Nobody asked her what that annual loss actually is.
The County's proposed 2026 budget (the adopted budget has yet to be posted online) anticipates about $105 million in revenue this year from property taxes. A shortfall at the home would be paid from the revenue generated by property taxes.
The census at Gracedale was recently below the 520 it needs to be in order to brake even.
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