Peoria County, which has in the past been pretty fiscally conservative, is on a spending spree these days. You’d think they were the City of Peoria. After a successful advocacy campaign for a sales tax to help build a museum downtown, now they’ve decided to not even ask the voters if they want to rebuild BelWood Nursing Home; they’re just going to do it.

County Board Member Merle Widmer has a couple of posts on his blog that explain what happened and why it’s a bad idea:

BelWood: Safety Net or Local Nursing Home Competitor?
BelWood: Safety Net or Local Nursing Home Competitor? Part 2

Oh, and did I mention the County is looking at a $4 million deficit by year’s end, and they are looking for non-essential services to cut?

Of course, supporters of the project point out that the taxes received for BelWood can only be used for BelWood, so getting out of the nursing home business won’t give the County any more money to plug the deficit. No, all it will do is give the citizens of the County more money in their pockets that they’re not paying in taxes, and heaven knows we can’t have that. Apparently the goal is to cut non-essential services only when the overall size of government can be maintained. In other words, if getting out of the nursing home business benefits the county government, they’ll do it. If only benefits the county’s citizens, they won’t. That’s the way government operates.