Talks set on Columbiana MRDD levies

Talks set on Columbiana MRDD levies

LISBON — The Columbiana County commissioners said they didn’t know a county agency was well-funded when they put a tax issue before voters.

William Devon, the superintendent of the MRDD board, will meet Wednesday with the commissioners after The Vindicator reported that the MRDD board was close to accumulating one year’s budget while saying it may have to close its Robert Bycroft School for youths.

The MRDD spends about $12 million a year.

The Columbiana County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities approved renewing and increasing one levy in the 2007 primary and saw a new proposed levy defeated last November.

The renewal and increase levy will bring in about $1 million more a year for MRDD. The tax will be collected this year.

The second tax issue would bring in $3.3 million a year for the board, which had $6.6 million as of Dec. 11.

The second issue, a 2.5-mill levy, was defeated in November and placed on the 2008 primary by the commissioners at Devon’s request.

Penny Traina, a county commissioner, said the size of the increase “was not told to us.”

For the complete story, see Tuesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com.