Not just schools. Other local govt services also have to go to referenda

I’ve mentioned several times about the increasing number of Wisconsin communities that have had to put in wheel taxes to fix their roads because the state has failed to adequately give them enough resources and flexibility since Scott Walker and the Wisconsin GOP came to power in 2011 (click here to see the growing list).

But that’s not the only area where local governments are asking its citizens to pay more just to keep the same level of service. As David Wahlberg tells us in today’s Wisconsin State Journal, two Wisconsin counties have referenda that ask to raise taxes in order to keep operating county nursing homes. And it’s a trend that’s likely to continue as cash-strapped local governments keep running out of money to handle increased service needs that the state and federal governments won’t chip in for.

Thirty-one of the state’s 72 counties own nursing homes, with Dunn County operating three and La Crosse, Trempealeau and Wood counties each having two, said Sarah Diedrick-Kasdorf, deputy director of government affairs for the Wisconsin Counties Association…
Many of the counties subsidize their nursing homes, but only a few have sought voter approval to increase levy limits to help pay for the facilities, said John Sauer, CEO of LeadingAge Wisconsin, which represents nursing homes. A few counties have held advisory referendums on whether to keep operating nursing homes.

Given that the Walker/WisGOP agenda has strangled local government by dumping more of these costs onto them without giving them the ability to pay for them, Portage and Green Counties are now asking its residents if they can raise property taxes to keep their county homes open. It’s a trend that’s likely to continue in order to handle increased service needs that the state and federal governments won’t chip in for.

In Green County, this is the third time officials have sought voter support for expenses at Pleasant View Nursing Home in Monroe. Voters approved $890,000 a year in 2009 and $790,000 a year in 2014, with more than 73 percent passing both measures.

This year, voters are being asked to continue the $790,000 a year for the 110-bed nursing home. The money is needed to make up for a shortfall in payments from Medicaid, which insures two-thirds of residents, said Cindy Miller, the facility’s life enrichment supervisor.

Portage County is asking voters for up to $1.4 million a year, for four years, for the Portage County Health Center in Stevens Point. It’s the first such referendum in the county, said County Executive Chris Holman.

Of course, the ALEC crew would love it if counties couldn’t afford to continue to operate these homes, and would instead sell them off to private contractors. More profit to be made there and less reason to care (and invest in) people with needs that don’t have the ability to pay for them. And it’s especially lousy if you live in a low-density and/or low-income area and need a home with those kinds of services.

Scott Walker can claim “your property taxes are low” due to this method of “governance”. But as we see with these funding questions and the numerous school tax referenda on the ballot next month, property taxes either won’t be going down (if the referenda are approved), or we are dealing with a significant dropoff in services for the people most in need of them.

The cracks in local government’s abilities to provide help for its citizens are becoming more numerous under our feet, and it isn’t just from the roads. If the Age of Fitzwalkerstan continues past November 6, those cracks will open up and swallow a lot of people. It’s gotta be ended.