Orange County officials: Valley View nursing home has $47 million in cash reserves

Dec. 14--GOSHEN -- Orange County officials acknowledged Tuesday that the county nursing home has amassed $47 million in cash reserves, finally answering a question that lawmakers had posed for several years during and after the administration's unsuccessful push to privatize the home.

At a combined meeting of two legislative committees, Finance Commissioner Karin Hablow distributed documents showing that the Valley View Center for Nursing Care and Rehabilitation had $28.4 million in its account at the end of 2016, and told committee members that figure had grown to $47.1 million as of Dec. 4. That increase came largely from big infusions of federal aid for government-owned nursing homes -- annual payments known as intergovernmental transfers.

Hablow's presentation, given in response to a formal request in October by legislators Roseanne Sullivan and Michael Amo, dispelled a mystery the administration previously had resisted resolving, despite repeated questions from legislators and the Times Herald-Record. As recently as April, county officials insisted to the Record that Valley View had a $51 million deficit at the end of 2015, before conceding that figure included a huge estimate of future health insurance obligations. They acknowledged then that the home actually had $26 million in cash reserves at the end of 2015.

Lawmakers on both sides of the past battle over privatization voiced satisfaction on Tuesday that the question finally had been answered, saying lawmakers and the administration could now discuss at future meetings how best to use those accumulated funds, which can only be spent at Valley View.

"Now at least we know what we've got in our checkbook," said Leigh Benton, chairman of the Legislature's Ways and Means Committee and a past supporter of selling Valley View.

"I think today the book is closed," said Mike Anagnostakis, a fellow Town of Newburgh Republican who fought privatization and is chairman of the Health and Mental Health Committee. "Today, we got the piece of information that we wanted."

Once portrayed as a snowballing cost burden that the county must sell, the 360-bed facility underwent a major financial turnaround after the county replaced its administrator in 2013. Valley View cost county taxpayers nearly $16 million in 2012, yet ran a profit of more than $7 million last year. No county tax dollars were budgeted for its operation in 2018.

cmckenna@th-record.com

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