MAYVILLE – The Chautauqua County Home in Dunkirk will have additional financial support to help keep it in operation through at least the end of 2013. That after county lawmakers last night approved a resolution that would provide $1.36 million in local money for the County Home as part of an intergovernmental transfer (IGT) grant program, which will provided rough $3.6 million in a match grant. Without the matching grant, the County Home would have depleted its fund balance by the end of 2013. Its cash account would have ran dry even sooner.
Lawmakers spent nearly 15 minutes discussing the IGT grant before finally voting on it. Among those in favor of the resolution was Jamestown’s Chuck Nazarro, who said the funding is needed to keep the home in operation while lawmakers await an independent report from the Center for Governmental Research on the viability of keeping the home in operation, as well as an update from the marketing firm Marcus and Millichap, who’ve been hired to market the home.
“Without the IGT Funding and under its current model of operation, the county home wont be able to survive financially,” Nazarro said. “So I’m supporting this full funding – based on [the anticipation] of reviewing the offers that are coming in from Marcus and Millichap, based on the [upcoming] report that we get from the Centers for Governmental Research, and based on the unions continuing open discussions on making concessions in the cost of operations I think it is the right thing to do at this time. It is a band aid, a band aid that we need so we can continue to provide quality healthcare in Dunkirk.”
Also supporting the resolution was George Borrello of Irving, who said as long as the county owns the home, it will have to pay for it, and this is the best way to do it.
“I think it’s important to point out that if a buyer was found tomorrow, we will still be in the nursing business for the next year to 18 months. So getting this money and keeping the county taxpayer from having to subsidize it with local tax dollars is the right, fiscally responsible thing do to,” Borrello explained. “I think there are some people that are under the impression that if somehow if the IGT is not funded, it will put pressure in some manner for something to happen. It simply wont. We will just go back to the local taxpayer dollar tree and pick some more money off of it – of course I’m being sarcastic. So having money matched with federal dollars will help us to reduce the tax burden locally.”
After discussion, the IGT resolution was approved by a vote of 20 to 4.
Local funding for the IGT grant was only made possible after county lawmakers realized the county had nearly $10 million available in its fund balance that was previously unaccounted for during the 2012 budget development process. With the IGT grant, the county home is projected to have a fund balance of $1.3 million at the end of 2013 and as much as $500,000 in operating revenue. County executive Greg Edwards says he supports the IGT resolution and will sign it later today.
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