“It’s been really frustrating this legislative session. We thought with the Democratic control, there would be more priorities on longer-term care and seniors.”
That disappointment, expressed by Jack L’heureux, administrator of the St. Clair Living Community nursing home in Mora and others in the nursing home industry, is directed at the DFL-sponsored House and Senate bills that increase senior-care funding by 2 percent after a four year funding freeze. The frustration has not been lost on legislative Republicans who at a news conference today said that DFLers should re-evaluate their priorities.
“You’ve got a crisis in the long-tem care industry, especially in nursing homes,” said Julie Rosen, Republican senator from Fairmont. “You have nursing homes that are in the red, constantly. They can’t provide their employees anything [in wages and benefits]. They can go walk down the street to Wal-Mart and get better.”
The industry finds the House and Senate bills a particularly bitter pill to swallow given DFL proposals to raise revenues by almost $3 billion. L’heureux has pointed out the discrepancy to his state representative, DFL-er Tim Faust, for whom L’heureux worked as a campaign volunteer.
“Both Senator [Tony] Lourey [the chair of the human services finance committee] and Representative Faust have been at my facility and my staff and I have been hammering them,” he said. “Both of them are very supportive but the problem is they need a better target to work with.”
Some Democrat legislators have shown a willingness to buck their leadership. Sen. Kent Eken, DFL-Twin Valley, has authored a bill to increase nursing home and senior care funding by 5 percent or $56 million over the next two years.
“I do feel that it’s necessary to address this issue because of the pending crisis with the age wave,” he said. “I do think the target was insufficient.”
Eken has authored a second bill to pay for the increase by extending the social security payroll tax beyond the income limit of $113,000. The state would pick up the additional tax for a Minnesota social security fund to pay for senior care and the disabled.
Rosen maintains the DFL just needs to rethink funding goals. “I think that they have so many wants and so many interests groups banging on their doors, they have lost their priority and they lost their focus, which is seniors, the vulnerable, and children.”
With the open disagreement about nursing home funding, the DFL’s internal debate about spending priorities could result in an external political problem. Asked whether the DFL was taking the senior voting bloc for granted, L’heureux replied, “My gut feeling is that they are going to be surprised if people have strong memories. Right now, I’d like to say all seniors are going to look to the Republican Party because they didn’t get much on the Democratic side.”