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Officials: Renewal of levy to avoid cuts
The two levies for the Mahoning County Mental Health Board generate about $4 million a year.
YOUNGSTOWN — Renewal of the Mahoning County Mental Health Board’s five-year, 0.85-mill property tax levy is essential to avoid cuts in programs for mentally ill residents, county mental health officials say.
It is not a new or an additional tax and is desperately needed, especially in the face of cuts in state and federal funding, they add.
The 0.85-mill levy was first passed in 1976, and was replaced in 2003, the only local increase in funding since 1976, said Ronald A. Marian, mental health board executive director.
The board has two local levies: One, the 0.85-mill on the Nov. 4 general election ballot; and the other, a five-year, 0.5-mill levy. Together, the levies generate about $4 million a year.
Other major funding sources are $6.8 million through the state Department of Mental Health; $5.4 million in federal Medicaid money, and other earmarked funds for which the board serves as a pass through, giving it a fiscal 2008 budget of $17.3 million, said Toni Notaro, board administrative director.
The Mahoning County Mental Health Board has experienced flat funding levels from the state over the last four years. This year, it has received a $130,000 cut in state funding, and another reduction is expected in January 2009.
Federal Title XX funding, used for local residential treatment services, has been reduced from $438,000 in 1998 to $225,704 in 2008, Marian said.
At the same time that revenue has been reduced, costs have gone up. For example, the daily rate the Ohio Department of Mental Health charges for patients in state hospitals is $481, up from $441 in 2003, which cost the county mental health board an additional $205,000 this year, he said.
Levy funds are used in a variety of ways, Marian said.
They provide the 40.34 percent match for Medicaid funds, which by law the board is required to pay; money for contract agencies to provide mental health services to the indigent, the working poor and the uninsured and under insured population of Mahoning County; discretionary spending for programs focusing on local needs and filling gaps in services; and as matching funds to bring in state and federal grants, Marian said.
The Mahoning County mental health system serves senior citizens, children, battered people, troubled youth, rape victims, families, severely mentally ill adults and people of all ages, races and socioeconomic backgrounds, Notaro said.
Mental health issues know no barriers. About one in five Mahoning County residents, or some 51,500, suffer from a treatable mental illness, Marian said.
In 2007, the mental health board, through its contract agencies, served 9,731 country residents, compared to 7,317 in 2002. Help Hotline Crisis Center, one of the board’s eight core agencies, answered 121,982 mental health crisis calls in 2007 compared to 99,468 in 2002.
The board funds counseling, psychiatric and case management services and medications and pays for inpatient beds at Forum Health and Humility of Mary Health Partners’ St. Elizabeth Health Center for psychiatric patients.
If the funds were not available contract for inpatient beds locally, the mental health board would have to send patients who need those services outside the community, Notaro said.
The levy costs the owner of a house, valued at $75,000 by the county auditor, $17.24 a year or 4.8 cents a day. The owner of a home valued at $100,000 pays $23 a year or 6 cents a day, she said.
“We understand that in these tough economic times, people are very concerned about their finances. But this is not a new tax, and the services are greatly needed,” Notaro said.
alcorn@vindy.com