After huge voter support, the next step for River Bluff may take a page from the Mental Health Board

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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UPDATE: The Winnebago County Clerk’s Office now says it is reviewing a “discrepancy” that may affect referendum outcomes.

ROCKFORD — John Buttita didn’t expect voters to support a tax increase, but he knew changes were needed at the county-owned nursing and rehabilitative facility to reverse its yearly operational deficits.

Now, the District 8 Winnebago County Board member is prepared to bring forward a property tax increase — one he didn’t want but voters did — in order to help River Bluff nursing and rehabilitative facility reduce its financial deficit.

But Buttita said the tax increase is just a Band-Aid fix for River Bluff, and he plans to work on other changes as well that will make the facility more financially viable.

“This is going to give us a little breathing room to operate the nursing home without a deficit budget while we implement these other structural options to make it a better business,” said Buttita, a Republican. “If we get River Bluff operating properly like it was, like it can, we can reduce the levy again in the future.”

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Voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly supported raising the property tax levy to support River Bluff in an advisory ballot question. About 76% of voters in the county said yes to increasing the amount levied by the county from 0.0445% to 0.1%. That is expected to result in an additional $25 a year for the owner of $150,000 home.

“I didn’t think that there was that appetite for tax increases,” Buttita said. “Everybody complains about their property taxes, but these increases were relatively small.”

New oversight board

Buttita said the next step will be to recommend to the County Board’s Finance Committee to incorporate that levy increase into the fiscal 2024 budget.

Beyond that, he plans to work to form a board of directors that can provide strategy, oversight and accountability to River Bluff. He compared it to the Winnebago County Mental Health Board, a group with expertise in the field that manages how the county’s sales tax dollars for mental health are spent.

County Board member Angie Goral, a Democrat from District 13 who also serves as the chairwoman of the board’s River Bluff Advisory Committee, also sees the benefits of a board of directors modeled after the Mental Health Board.

That board, she said, must be comprised of people with expertise in senior care.

“I want people who know about health care,” she said.

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Goral was surprised and thankful for the massive show of support the nursing home received on Tuesday. In the lead up to the election, she had been one of the board’s most vocal advocates for the nursing home.

The current facility was built in 1967, but its history dates back to the 1850s, when it was the Winnebago County Poor Farm. That shows the county’s long history of caring for people in need, she said.

“To have all these people jump in and back River Bluff is a great honor to our community recognizing what a 150 years of progress has brought us to,” she said.

Next steps

Buttita said forming a new board of directors will be a monthslong process. He’s already started reaching out to local experts in the field to help shape the future of the facility.

River Bluff is expected run a $2.37 million deficit this fiscal year, according to the county’s budget. Issues with government reimbursement for Medicaid patients have contributed to spending the facility’s reserve cash down to $0, he said.

Six years ago the facility was operating smoothly financially, but since then the county has had to dip into other funds to pay for River Bluff’s expenses. Buttita said about $9.4 million from the county’s general fund, landfill fees and other funds have been tapped to cover River Bluff’s losses over the past half-dozen years.

“We really need to take a hard look operationally at what we can do to sustain that nursing home,” Winnebago County Board Chairman Joe Chiarelli said. “We have to get the management really keyed in on having a sustainable funding source so we’re not robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

The last time voters approved a tax increase to River Bluff’s levy was in 1989, County Board members said. That gave the authorization for the levy to increase to 0.1%, but it has never been higher than 0.08%.

“It’s fallen over the years because River Bluff’s fund was robust and we didn’t need as many property tax dollars,” Buttita said.

That has changed in the last half-dozen years, he said. Now, the county will dig in to changing its financial fortunes.

“We really need to take a hard look operationally at what we can do to sustain that nursing home,” Chiarelli said. “That’s our mission and that’s our goal, to really get that facility to be as great as it can be for all generations going forward.”

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas.