I wanted to comment on the recent letter to the editor from Monmouth County Democratic leader Vin Gopal and an article about a task force that is examining the Monmouth County care centers.
Both have the same physical and mental effect on me — they make me spin. Mr. Gopal attacks the Monmouth County Republican freeholders for reducing again the financial support for Brookdale Community College. Yet, as he points out, enrollment has been down 12 percent over three years. Apparently, enrollment is expected to further decrease in the coming years.
He points out that the county should not be running the two nursing homes. In the separate article, Freeholder John Curley is reported as saying that the two nursing homes have cost the county $45 million since 2007. The report does not state whether this is the total cost, not reduced by resident/Medicaid payments or a net loss.
Mr. Gopal, as the Monmouth County Democratic chairman, recommends that the problem of Brookdale tuition increases and the loss of 210 Brookdale jobs be solved by selling the nursing homes. Mr. Gopal says the Democrats locally are battling to keep taxes low and cut government waste and spending. He says New Jersey has the 13th highest property taxes in the nation.
The Republican freeholders, meanwhile, have formed a task force to inspect and report on the nursing homes.
Spinning. How does it make sense not to cut staff if a business has lost 12 percent of its “customers”? Just because money can be saved in some other area of the overall business ( i.e., Monmouth County giving up the nursing home business) does not now mean one should transfer the waste and spending to another part of the business. Privatizing the nursing homes probably makes sense, but if they are suffering millions in losses, they probably are not a valuable asset in a sale. I bet if the freeholders’ money was on the line as business owners and losing money for about seven years, they would have done something dramatic by now, or the business and they themselves might have been in bankruptcy for years already. But no, this is taxpayer money at risk.
So how about cutting unnecessary jobs due to the lower enrollment at Brookdale, closing some buildings to reduce utility and maintenance costs, closing some class subject offerings that are less important or underattended, and increasing class sizes where need be to prevent the tuition increases while saving the taxpayers money?
Putting the focus on quality education on important subjects that will lead to jobs or movement to continued higher education, while reducing tuition costs, will help enrollment.
Unless the nursing homes can be made profitable quickly, how about virtually giving the losing business of the nursing homes away to private qualified bidders as soon as possible? Stop the bleeding costs to the taxpayers and get the businesses on the tax rolls and the buildings rented or sold to the private nursing home operator(s), giving the county income instead of losses, as soon as possible.
Mr. Gopal, his Democrats and the Republican freeholders would not be talking and acting the way they are in these articles if their money and business survival were on the line.
Ken Curtis
Jackson