Walker era neglect leads people to leave state veterans homes. So no more money to raid!

The Joint Finance Committee is scheduled to wrap up its discussions of the state budget this week. And while there are still huge issues of taxation to figure out, I wanted to talk about something a little further in the weeds - the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Veterans Trust Fund, and the care of the individuals at the state's nursing homes for vets.

Let me remind you that Katelyn Ferral did a series of stories for the Capital Times in 2016 and 2017 that documented numerous areas of neglect and understaffing at the state veterans’ home in King, Wisconsin. Which featured dangerous and squalid living conditions, including water that looked like this.

Another part of Ferral’s stories included an explanation in 2016 of how the Walker Administration relied on keeping the King home excessively filled, and then used the extra reimbursement funds that came in from King and other veterans homes to keep the Veterans’ Trust Fund afloat instead of paying to improve things at the facilities.

As King makes millions in surplus revenue each year, state officials have increasingly transferred money away from the home to fund programs and salaries in Madison, a practice approved by the Legislature and Gov. Scott Walker.

Several former King employees who observed admission practices said the state keeps the homes as full as possible, alleging exceedingly sick veterans are accepted regardless of its capacity to care for them. More heads in King’s 721 beds means more money flows to the state from Medicaid, Medicare and the federal Department of Veterans Affairs.

State officials have used King’s money to subsidize its other veterans homes and have transferred more than $20 million in total since 2007 back to Madison to pay for other departmental expenses and salaries. The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to transfer another $18.6 million from King over the next two fiscal years, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. This year, WDVA transferred $12 million out of the fund for the homes.

These transfers of money have taken away $48 million over the last 4 years that could have been reinvested in the homes themselves.

Transfers from Veterans Homes to Veterans Trust Fund
2015-16 $12.0 million
2016-17 $9.0 million
2017-18 $12.5 million
2018-19 $14.5 million
TOTAL $48.0 MILLION

The Joint Finance Committee voted 16-0 to puts limits on the transfers in 2017, allowing it to be notified and have veto power over any future moves from the Governor’s Office. But the GOPs that run the Assembly and Senate refused to override Walker’s vetoes of that unanimous JFC vote, and so the Walker Administration kept funneling over the money generated from the veterans’ homes while still claiming to hold a massive budget surplus of general tax dollars.

However, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau says that things have drastically changed at the King Veterans Home over the last 2 years, as it has lost more than 20% of its residents. Therefore, there is no money available to send over.

3. At the time that transfers began, the state veterans homes PR account had a substantial unappropriated balance, in excess of $50 million. Over time, however, this balance has declined and can no longer be considered a reliable source of revenue for the VTF. DVA projects that the balance will be $14.4 million at the end of 2018-19, which would be equivalent to less than two months of the operating budget for the homes.

4. The decline in the unappropriated balance in the state veterans homes PR account is due in large part to the transfers to the VTF, but also is due to a decline in the number of residents at the King Veterans Home. Whereas there were 690 residents at King at the start of 2016-17, that number declined to 542 at the end of May of 2019. When the King Home was at or near full capacity, the amount of revenue generated from all sources, including Medicaid, member payments, and federal per diem payments, exceeded costs. However, with fewer beds filled, the amount of revenue that the homes generate has declined, and expenses at the King Home are now projected to exceed revenues.

Oops! Funny how we didn’t know about these declining resident totals before the 2018 election, isn’t it? You don’t think that’s related to the numerous stories of neglect and understaffing at King, and people deciding it was better for vets to live out their elder years somewhere else, do you? I guess that’s the Walker Way of solving the problem - neglect it and hope people go away!

The new Evers Administration intended to end the practice of transferring extra money to the Veterans Trust Fund and instead use real tax dollars to pay for these services to vets. But they figured one last transfer was available for the upcoming fiscal year to pay for things when they created this budget. That now doesn’t seem to be the case.

6. The GPR appropriation for the VTF supplement would first apply in 2020-21. The administration assumed that the fund would require one additional transfer from the state veterans homes in 2019-20, estimated at $13.8 million, to remain solvent in that year. However, due in part to continued decreases in the number of residents at the King Home, and the fact that the current PR balance is already less than two months of operating expenses, it now appears that there may not be a sufficient PR balance to make a full transfer in that year. Based on current revenue and expenditure projections, DVA projects that the PR account would have a deficit in excess of $10 million at the end of 2019-20 if the Department were to make a transfer to the VTF in that year. In light of this, the, the Committee may decide that it is necessary to begin the GPR transfer to the VTF in 2019-20 (Alternative 2). Under this alternative, the GPR transfer would be estimated at $13,800,000 in that year.

Given our alleged surplus of $1 billion to carry over, I don’t see a reason why some of that couldn’t pay for veterans’ services on a one-time basis, while a more permanent fix is figured out in the next 2 years.

But what an avoidable and damning example of how operations were mismanaged in Walker World, and how it’s yet another mess that Evers has to clean up once we find out the true extent of the damage.