More than a month after the sale of a county-owned nursing home in rural Wisconsin fell through, the Lincoln County Board on Tuesday voted against allowing voters to decide whether to provide more funding to the facility.
It’s the second time the board rejected putting a referendum on the ballot asking voters whether they would provide more tax support for Pine Crest Nursing Home in Merrill. The first time was in 2023. This time around, the referendum faced opposition from a group of residents who’ve been advocating for the county to maintain ownership of the facility.
For more than a year, Lincoln County officials have been grappling with the future of Pine Crest, which is home to about 80 people and has been owned by the county since the 1950s. But the facility has faced deficits over the last decade.
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The county had approved selling the facility, but the sale fell through at the end of June over a lawsuit challenging the sale.
Prior to the board’s discussion on the referendum Tuesday, County Board Chair Jesse Boyd said the property is not currently listed for sale, but the initial buyer “expressed interest” in purchasing the home when litigation is resolved. Boyd said the county also received an unsolicited letter from another prospective buyer.
“I’m not saying more about either one of these communications as the county has not acted upon them, and they are not a part of today’s agenda,” he said. “But it seems general awareness of (this) information would be relevant, and also I believe it is in the interest of transparency in this process.”
The county board voted 8-11 against a resolution for a November referendum. It would have asked voters whether to increase the county’s tax levy by $5 million annually for the next five years to support the home.
Had it been approved, the referendum would have had an estimated $186 tax impact per $100,000 of the property value for residents. The money raised would’ve gone toward Pine Crest’s operations, maintenance, repairs, updates and debt service.
According to the resolution, the facility needs $12 million worth of repairs, maintenance and upgrades over the next decade. In the period covered by the referendum, the resolution says the facility would cost the county at least $20 million to operate.
People for Pine Crest, the group that opposed this year’s referendum, called the county’s new proposal a “poison pill” that was designed to fail at the ballot box. During the meeting, they questioned the size of the proposed referendum, and said it should not have included operational expenses.
“We are here to provide the constituents of Lincoln County an honest alternative to the Pine Crest referendum, and give them an honest Pine Crest capital improvement referendum,” said Eileen Guthrie, a People for Pine Crest member and Town of Pine River resident.
The alternative referendum proposed by the group suggested exceeding the tax levy limit by $15 million over 10 years for maintenance and upgrades, instead of the proposed $25 million over five years.
People for Pine Crest member and local pastor Michael Southcombe said the facility’s revenues have improved over the last year.
“Medicaid rates have been raised, and they have an automatic inflation adjustment,” he said. “The ‘Chicken Little sky is falling’ justification in this referendum is disingenuous to the point of being purposely deceitful.”
Board supervisors proposed two different amended resolutions, each with a lower annual price tag than $5 million. But each of those amendments failed.
County Board vice chair Julie DePasse, who chairs the finance committee, said the county doesn’t have the money to continue subsidizing Pine Crest. She said the county needs a nursing home in Merrill and she believed privatizing the facility was the best way to ensure it remained open.
“Other than closure, a referendum, I do feel, is our only option. And it’ll answer the question as to whether or not taxpayers are willing to support a county-owned and skilled nursing facility,” she said.
DePasse said the size of the $5 million referendum was “honest,” but she also acknowledged the facility’s finances have improved over the last year.
“While Pine Crest is in the black this year, it has lost over a million dollars per year on average for the last decade,” she said. “Ten years is a trend. Ten months is not.”
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