EDITORIAL: Levy leaves $17.4-million question in legislature's hands

The budget that Suffolk Executive Steve Levy sent to the county legislature is balanced, but only if the lawmakers either do something they don't like - closing or selling the county's nursing home - or come up with taxes or cuts that would fill that hole in the budget. It's a bit of a game.

There's no question that getting the county out of the nursing home business makes sense. But the legislature has made it abundantly clear that it refuses to close and is reluctant to sell the John J. Foley Skilled Nursing Facility in Yaphank to a private operator. Still, Levy's $2.7-billion 2011 budget relies on $17.4 million in revenue from shutting down the home.

Levy did not specify selling the home in the budget, because he hasn't yet met all the requirements of a 1997 county law on privatizing health facilities. But he included a painful plan to close it, let the roughly 270 employees and 250 patients go, and sell the operating license and the building. He says he can close it without legislative approval, if he follows state rules for placing patients elsewhere. That puts on lawmakers the burden of accepting the closing, acquiescing to a sale (which is what Levy really wants), finding other costs to cut, raising taxes, or dipping into the rainy-day reserve.

Levy's right to try to sell Foley, but workers will lose some pay and lawmakers also fear some patients will be hard to place. This is the time for them to ensure that patients get treated well, then move forward with the sale. hN