Ad Watch: Wild’s Cedarbook funding claim is misleading
U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, a Democrat first elected in 2018, is facing Republican Lisa Scheller, a businesswoman and former Lehigh County commissioner, in the 7th Congressional District, which includes Lehigh, Northampton and part of southern Monroe County.
The ad
Voiceover: ”The Morning Call said Lisa Scheller’s negative attack ad is ‘not true.’
“Lisa Scheller slashed funding for Cedarbrook nursing home, which now has among the most COVID cases and deaths in the state.”
Susan Wild, on camera: “I’ve worked to get health care costs covered for anyone infected by the virus, and for free testing. Getting more funding to protect nursing homes and front-line workers has been my priority.”
The analysis
Cedarbrook once made money for its owner, Lehigh County. But in the early 2010s the nursing home experienced a decline in its number of residents and stagnant reimbursement rates, leading to more dependence on county coffers.
Scheller served as a county commissioner from 2012-16, when Republicans had a 7-2 majority on the board. Commissioners frequently clashed with Democratic administrations over the management of the nursing home and proposed renovations. The board also commissioned multiple reports from an independent consultant on Cedarbrook’s operation and finances, leading many to fear it intended
to sell the home. (It didn’t.)
Wild’s ad cites an October 2013 Morning Call article on Lehigh County budget negotiations. Scheller was among the majority of commissioners at that time who voted to cut $500,000 from $6.5 million in proposed 2014 subsidies to the nursing home.
But while the final $6 million contribution to Cedarbrook was less than what county administrators requested for 2014, it far exceeded previous years’ budgeted contributions.
The county budgeted $3.4 million to the nursing home for 2013. That sum proved inadequate — Cedarbrook ultimately needed $7 million to get through the year. Scheller joined every other commissioner in voting that September to provide the supplemental funds.
In late 2014, commissioners unanimously voted to withhold $200,000 in the proposed 2015 budget needed to pay Cedarbrook’s management company, LW Consulting. Commissioners did so in order to force County Executive Tom Muller to bring the management contract in front of them if he wanted it renewed.
Scheller was also among the
commissioners who balked at a Muller-supported nursing home renovation proposal in 2014 estimated to cost $1.5 million. Instead, the Republican bloc called for an in-depth study of the facility’s future and a clearer picture of its finances.
In early 2015, LW Consulting opted out of renewing its contract with Lehigh County. The management company said the home’s financial challenges were the result of inadequate funding and fragmented policy directives, and complained that commissioners micromanaged and second-guessed decisions. The verdict
During Scheller’s tenure, county commissioners provided less Cedarbrook funding and acted more deliberately than the county’s executive branch and Cedarbrook’s management team desired. But Wild’s claim that Scheller “slashed” funding is simplistic, and her connecting commissioners’ frugality to Cedarbrook’s pandemic woes is misleading.