ackson County Senior Services is a nonprofit organization devoted to providing essential services to seniors who live in their own homes within the Jackson County area. Three services are provided for

ackson County Senior Services is a nonprofit organization devoted to providing essential services to seniors who live in their own homes within the Jackson County area. Three services are provided for seniors—home nursing, Meals On Wheels, and housekeeping. In the home nursing program, nurses visit seniors on a regular basis to check on their general health and to perform tests ordered by their physicians. The Meals On Wheels program delivers a hot meal once a day to each senior enrolled in the program. The housekeeping service provides weekly housecleaning and maintenance services. Data on revenue and expenses for the past year follow:

Total

Home Nursing

Meals On Wheels

House

keeping

  Revenues

$

926,000

$

267,000

$

406,000

$

253,000

  Variable expenses

471,000

113,000

199,000

159,000

  Contribution margin

455,000

154,000

207,000

94,000

  Fixed expenses:

    Depreciation

69,000

8,300

40,600

20,100

    Liability insurance

43,900

20,800

7,600

15,500

    Program administrators’ salaries

115,300

40,900

38,300

36,100

    General administrative overhead*

185,200

53,400

81,200

50,600

  Total fixed expenses

413,400

123,400

167,700

122,300

  Net operating income (loss)

$

41,600

$

30,600

$

39,300

$

-28,300

*Allocated on the basis of program revenues.

     The head administrator of Jackson County Senior Services, Judith Miyama, is concerned about the organization’s finances and considers the net operating income of $41,600 last year to be too small. (Last year’s results were very similar to the results for previous years and are representative of what would be expected in the future.) She feels that the organization should be building its financial reserves at a more rapid rate in order to prepare for the next inevitable recession. After seeing the above report, Ms. Miyama asked for more information about the financial advisability of discontinuing the housekeeping program.

     The depreciation in housekeeping is for a small van that is used to carry the housekeepers and their equipment from job to job. If the program were discontinued, the van would be donated to a charitable organization. Depreciation charges assume zero salvage value. None of the general administrative overhead would be avoided if the housekeeping program were dropped, but the liability insurance and the salary of the program administrator would be avoided.

Required:

1a.

What is the impact on net operating income by discontinuing housekeeping program? (Input the amount as a positive value. Omit the "$" sign in your response.)

(Click to select)Increase Decrease in net operating income by

$  

1b.

Should the housekeeping program be discontinued?

Yes

No