It would not be fair to sell the County Home that is losing money to someone until they show us how they will make the County Home's budget balance.
Before the home is sold, the proposer must show the legislature how it will increase revenue to break even without decreasing staff and without decreasing wages or benefits.
To enforce this, the sale will have a double deed, with the county owning the second deed, so if the proposer fails to keep the stipulations, the county can take back ownership. A double deed is a method of holding the proposer accountable.
We should also know from the proposer if they will or will not ask the county for funds to get matching funds from the federal government.
The legislature must be shown research on what happens to publicly owned homes that get sold to a private company, if it is true that the number of staff is made less, and if wages are lessened.
If the new owner can manage the home and break even without cutting staff, without cutting wages or benefits, then their techniques should be taught to the County Home so it can run on a break-even budget.
As the health care system will be changing, how will the county nursing home fit into that plan? It is not fair to sell the home when that is unknown.
If we want to sell the County Home because it costs the county money, that is not part of the reasoning for whether a county should have a home or not.
The high taxes and costs that make us try to cut the budget are not the immediate cause of our shortage of money or the state's shortage of money. It is the larger picture of inequality of income and wealth in our state and country.
There is the inequality of pay, and the inequality of taxes, which tax the lower wages more than the higher wages. And the inequality of many businesses paying little or no taxes on their profits. If those examples of inequality were changed, the state would have more than enough money so that the unfunded mandates would not be needed.
Caring for the people of the county is part of the purpose of government, and government is no more than people working together to care for each other and to work together to provide for the common good. We build roads, provide clean water, water treatment, fire protection, protection by police in order to care for people.
So does providing for the elderly belong to providing for the common good of the people? Do we as the people (not the county and not the government) want to care for the elderly who have no other healthy way to be cared for? We are in this together to care for one another.