County budget committee cuts nursing home request by 10%

LACONIA — Funding for the Belknap County Nursing Home would increase under a budget recommendation from a committee of the County Delegation, but the amount is significantly below what county commissioners had argued was necessary to put the facility back on a stable financial footing.

The delegation’s Executive Committee on Wednesday voted to forward a recommended county budget of $31.2 million. Of that figure, $12.1 million would be for operating the nursing home which has been beset with staffing shortages, a situation which county officials have attributed to low pay. The nursing home budget last year was $11.5 million. The county commissioners had argued for $13.4 million to run the nursing home this year.

The recommended spending package now goes to the full 18-member delegation which sets the amount of the budget. State Rep. Mike Sylvia, who chairs the delegation and sits on the Executive Committee, said he expected the delegation to take up the budget sometime during the latter part of February.

The committee voted Tuesday to cut $1.37 million from County Commissioners’ proposal of $13.45 million for the nursing home. All told, the committee cut nearly $2.1 million from the $33.4 million spending package for all county departments recommended by the county commissioners.

Of the $31.2 million overall budget being recommended, $16.1 million would be raised through property taxes — an increase of 22.4% from last year.

The county tax accounts for between 5% and 10% of a property tax bill, depending on the community.

In concluding its work on the commissioner’s recommended budget, the committee reduced the anticipated amount of revenue to the county by almost $2 million. Most of that money comes from Medicaid payments for nursing home care.

The decrease in revenue projection is a consequence of the committee’s recommendation to cut $1.2 million in funds for salaries for nursing home staff.

The commissioners had sought more funds in order to retain nurses on staff, and to be more competitive in hiring nurses to fill existing vacancies. The commissioners believed that more staff would allow for new admissions — and hence more revenue — to the home which, due to the staff shortage, is now operating at 60% capacity.

The committee further voted to use $2 million from the county’s fund balance to reduce the amount needed to be paid by taxes.

If the use of that $2 million is approved when the delegation votes on the budget, it will bring the county’s fund balance down to about $1.5 million. The county commissioners’ policy has been not to let the fund balance drop below $3.5 million. Last year the delegation used $1 million from the fund balance for property tax relief.

The Executive Committee spent about 30 minutes of Wednesday’s two-hour meeting re-examining the proposed $2.7 million budget for the Sheriff’s Department. In the end the committee cut that figure by $228,848, resulting in a recommended budget of $2.5 million.

After considerable discussion with Sheriff William Wright, the panel restored $15,000 which it had cut from the $25,000 which had been earmarked for equipment for the regional SWAT team, and $7,500 that had been cut for officer training.

State Rep. Norm Silber told other committee members those two items were essential to public safety and so they should be funded as the sheriff had requested. To offset those changes the committee cut $22,500 from funds to pay court bailiffs.

State Rep. Barbara Comtois noted that Wright’s budget proposal was up $500,000 compared to last year, an increase which she considered an undue burden on taxpayers.

The recommended budgets for other departments are:

— County Attorney: $1.1 million.

— Maintenance: $705,000.

— Corrections Department: $4.8 million.

— County Administration, Finance and Information Technology: $900,000.

— Registry of Deeds: $430,500.