Pine Crest referendum language headed to County Board for consideration

TINA L. SCOTT
EDITOR

At a joint meeting of the Lincoln County Administrative and Legislative (A&L) Committee and the Finance and Insurance Committee held last Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, the Committees passed a resolution authorizing a binding referendum on the issue of exceeding the tax levy to finance the continued operation of Pine Crest Nursing Home for the next five years and approved the referendum question language. The matter now goes before the entire Lincoln County Board for consideration at their Aug. 20 regular County Board meeting.
After discussion regarding the Pine Crest financials and what number would be most accurate to include in the proposed referendum language, to reflect the County’s actual needs to cover both nursing home operating expenses and debt service, as well as the maintenance needs of the buildings, the Committees settled on a figure of $5 million dollars per year for the next five years, 2025-2029, for a total of $25 million dollars. Most of the maintenance on the buildings has been long deferred and the Committees, with input from the maintenance staff, said the maintenance cannot continue to be deferred and the issues must be addressed.
This referendum would not necessarily address the facility’s long-term needs but would cover only the next five years.
Pine Crest Nursing Home was set to be sold to Merrill Campus LLC and Senior Management Inc. this year, but the buyer terminated the Asset Purchase Agreement with Lincoln County in response to a lawsuit filed by Donald J. Dunphy in May. Dunphy represents District 7 on the Lincoln County Board and is a member of People for Pine Crest, a group that has advocated against the sale of the Merrill facility. He ran for office saying that, if elected, he would stop the sale of Pine Crest, and his lawsuit had the desired result, as a clause in the agreement stated the buyers could terminate the agreement in the event of legal action and they exercised that option on June 28. Dunphy then dismissed the lawsuit; however, the Lincoln County Board - anticipating that Pine Crest Nursing Home would no longer be County-owned in 2025 - had not planned to cover the costs of operating and maintaining the nursing home for 2025 and beyond.
As a result, the Lincoln County A&L and Finance and Insurance Committees are recommending the Lincoln County Board put the matter of financing the County-run nursing home on the November ballot, to let voters decide if they are willing to finance the maintenance and operation of Pine Crest with an increase in their taxes. The People for Pine Crest group has long advocated for sending the matter to a referendum.
“Some people in the public are arguing that taxpayers are willing to fund it and they want to,” said District 12 Supervisor Julie DePasse. “I think this would finally answer that question, at least for the next five years. It would answer the question. If taxpayers do want to keep the service and increase their taxes, they can vote Yes, and if they don’t, they can vote No. And if it’s No, then we have to look at sale again.”

Debating the referendum and the language

“We also need to understand that in the last few years people have had to pay so much extra,” said District 2 Supervisor Lori Anderson-Malm. “We only have 28,000 people in Lincoln County … We have not increased our population. So we’re asking all these people … living paycheck to paycheck - paying more for gas, paying more for food … [to pay more].”
“The surrounding areas, we’re all going or going to be going through reevaluations for property. The city of Merrill is going through that right now. The city of Merrill will probably - there’s a good chance that some residential properties could go up 10%,” she said.
Anderson-Malm shared her frustration about the termination of the sale of Pine Crest. “We had a really good deal - we had a fantastic deal - that would have not only benefited the residents, the employees, it would have benefited the City, the County, the school, and NTC,” she said. “Because right now as a public building, we get no taxes from that. If it would have been a private entity, we would have gotten property taxes. And again, that would have helped all four entities … It’s so frustrating that there was a good solution and these people were willing to take on that debt. But it’s gone now. So if we have to have a referendum, great. Let’s have a referendum. Let’s get it on the ballot in November. If it fails, I don’t want to hear one more thing about it. I don’t want to hear one more thing - that we didn’t talk to anybody, that there was no transparency - which is false. I don’t want to hear anything. If this fails I don’t want to hear any complaining. None.”
District 20 Supervisor Angela Cummings said Lincoln County already has one of the highest tax rates in the area and she is concerned that putting Pine Crest out there as a referendum isn’t giving taxpayers the complete picture, as there are other big financial issues Lincoln County is also facing. “I feel like we’re doing a disservice if we do just one referendum without encapsulating all of the financial problems,” Cummings said.
Time is of the essence in approving the referendum language, as the Lincoln County Board will need to decide on the final language at their Aug. 20 meeting in order to get the referendum on the November 5, 2024, ballot.
The Lincoln County Board does have the option to change the dollar amount requested as they consider the referendum language at their Aug. 20 meeting, so the referendum language isn’t yet final, and the County Board must vote to decide if the referendum will, in fact, appear on the November ballot at all. But if Friday morning’s meeting was any indication, putting the matter to a referendum vote may be the County Board’s only viable options at this point.
The final resolution coming out of Friday’s meeting included language that stipulated the Administrative and Legislative Committee would also provide residents of Lincoln County with more complete information regarding Pine Crest Nursing Home to include past and anticipated finances, budget deficits, bed-licenses, residency census, and facility maintenance needs; obligations, liabilities, support, and services funded from the County tax-levy and State supplemental payments; current debt; and other material the Committee determines applicable to provide voters with complete information. The Committee shall also include information about the existing and anticipated County operating budget and capital improvement program needs, obligations, liabilities, and shortfalls for purposes other than for Pine Crest Nursing Home for which debt service and/or tax levy increase referenda may be necessary during the next 10 years.
“We have an obligation, as a County Board, to provide information to the electorate so that they can make a well-informed decision,” District 18 Supervisor Ken Wickham said. “And knowing what other we may come asking for over the next 10 years … we have all these other needs out there, and I would hate to have our residents vote on this and approve something and then County Board turns around and takes out debt service without a referendum … and there’s nothing they can do about it except pay the taxes on it … so I think we have an obligation to inform.”
The final amended motion passed 7-2 on a roll call vote with supervisors Wickham and Cummings voting against the resolution for a referendum.