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Senior-services levy looks unlikely in ’11
YOUNGSTOWN
Voters are unlikely to see a new countywide senior-services levy on the Nov. 8 general election ballot in Mahoning County because time is running out to meet the ballot deadline, two county commissioners said.
There are “probably too many moving parts in play to get it done in three days,” John A. McNally IV, chairman of the county commissioners, said late last week.
“There’s not enough time,” agreed Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti.
To meet Wednesday’s deadline for getting items on the November ballot, McNally said the commissioners would have to conduct two special meetings before then, one to direct the county auditor to certify the annual amount of money it would raise, and the other to put the proposed 1-mill, five-year property tax levy on the ballot.
No such special meetings have been scheduled on or before Wednesday; and the commissioners’ next regular meeting will be at 10 a.m. Thursday in the county courthouse basement.
McNally also said the county prosecutor’s office would need time to draft a resolution to place the measure on the ballot.
Joseph Rossi, chief executive officer of the District XI Area Agency on Aging, who proposed the levy to the commissioners last Thursday, projected the levy would generate about $4 million a year. Rossi said it is needed to compensate for losses in federal and state funding.
The proposed levy would fund home-delivered and congregate meals, senior center activities, adult day- care, home care and home-repair services.
McNally said he’d consider placing the measure on the ballot next year; Righetti said she wouldn’t object to placing it on the 2012 ballot.
“In theory, it’s a great idea. We have an aging population in Mahoning County,” Righetti said of such a levy.
The commissioners also should conduct public hearings before placing such a measure on the ballot, McNally said.
Commissioner Anthony T. Traficanti could not be reached to comment.
“We need to make the public more aware of what they’re doing,” Righetti said of District XI, the Niles-based agency, which coordinates and funds services to senior citizens in Ashtabula, Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties.
Ashtabula and Trumbull counties have countywide senior-services levies.