Sunnycrest Manor Seeks 40 Staff as Levy Shifts

Dubuque healthcare employers should expect new hiring demand as the nursing home's oversight moves to the hospital board in 2027.

Updated on Nov. 3, 2026 in Nursing Jobs

Sunnycrest Manor Seeks 40 Staff as Levy Shifts

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Sunnycrest Manor has shared budget details ahead of the transfer of its operations from Dubuque County to the Dubuque County Hospital Board of Trustees, scheduled for January 1, 2027. The county supervisors ended the operating lease in February and pushed the original July 1 transfer date back, and the facility is recruiting for 40 open positions.

Why it matters

The transfer changes who funds and oversees the care facility, shifting its financing from the county levy to a hospital board levy. For operators in long-term care and health staffing, the move signals how public nursing-home budgets are being restructured around Medicaid-heavy revenue.

Sunnycrest projects $14.6 million in fiscal year 2027 revenue, mainly from Medicaid, against $17.3 million in operating costs, leaving a gap of about $2.6 million that the hospital board's levy is expected to cover. The facility is recruiting for 19 full-time and 21 part-time open positions, and its general fund is projected at around $2.5 million against a 30% to 35% target share of the operating budget, or close to $5 million.

The players

Dubuque County Board of Supervisors

The elected county governing body that controls county levies and leases and voted to end the operating lease with Sunnycrest.

Dubuque County Hospital Board of Trustees

The hospital board that will assume oversight of Sunnycrest Manor and set the levy funding its operations.

Sunnycrest Manor

The county-owned long-term care facility whose operations, funded largely by Medicaid, are being transferred to hospital board oversight.

Emily Gosche

Sunnycrest's finance director, who presented the updated fiscal year 2027 budget to the supervisors.

The details

Under the new arrangement, the county's operating lease with Sunnycrest ends and responsibility passes to the hospital board of trustees, which raised its supporting levy to roughly 71 cents per $1,000 of taxable property value in April. That levy covers the difference between Sunnycrest's revenue and expenditures, rather than the county's combined 42-cent levy that was split with the 911 Emergency Communications Center. Sunnycrest has also hired a human resources staff member to take over that function from the county, and its fiscal year 2027 budget sets contracted services at nearly $900,000.

February: Supervisors voted to end the county operating lease and delay the transfer from July 1 to January 1, 2027.
April: Hospital trustees voted to raise the tax levy to about 71 cents per $1,000 of taxable value.
July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027: The fiscal year 2027 budget period covered by the presented budget.
January 1, 2027: Scheduled transfer of Sunnycrest operations to the hospital board of trustees.

Market Landscape

County-owned nursing homes in Iowa are increasingly being restructured so that a separate public body, here the hospital board, funds and oversees them through its own levy rather than the general county levy. Dubuque's shift of Sunnycrest Manor follows that pattern of moving long-term care budgets onto a dedicated levy tied to Medicaid-heavy revenue.

Healthcare operators and staffing firms serving Dubuque should expect Sunnycrest to fill 40 open roles as it takes on new administrative responsibilities. Suppliers and contracted-service vendors should watch the nearly $900,000 contracted-services budget, since the hospital board's oversight may change how those contracts are awarded.

The takeaway

Care facilities whose funding moves to a new levy structure should review how their payroll, HR, and vendor contracts will be handled after the transfer date. Track the hospital board's levy decisions, since the trustees' fund-balance goals will shape how stable the facility's budget remains.