Last week the state of New Jersey suspended the license of Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center in Andover Township. Then Medicaid said the Federal Government would no longer pay for over 300 residents to live there. This has forced Woodland to try to relocate it's 347 residents. Over 90 percent of them have their bills paid by Medicaid. A shut down of the troubled long term care center is now looming. Which (all of a sudden) has local elected officials very concerned. It turns out Woodland (one of the state's largest nursing homes) is also Andover Township's biggest taxpayer. Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center, formerly Andover Sub Acute 1 and 2, pays about $1.4 million dollars in property taxes every year. More than half of the money goes to support the local school district. The rest helps support municipal and county government. Over the years many have called for the facility to be shut down. Now it looks like it might happen. While all this clamoring to close the facility was going on. No one seemed to think about the lost jobs and tax revenue. So now what? Congressman Josh Gottheimer has joined with Senator Steve Oroho, Assemblymen Wirths and Space to ask Governor Murphy for some kind of help. They have all signed a letter to the governor asking for financial assistance for Andover Township. So far the governor's office has not commented on their request.
Source: New Jersey Herald
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