Mahoning commissioners asked to OK seniors levy for ballot

June 21, 2012 at 7:36p.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

The director of Area Agency on Aging 11 is asking the Mahoning County commissioners to place on the Nov. 6 general election ballot a new 1-mill, five-year, countywide senior services real estate tax levy.

The levy, which would generate about $4 million annually, would pay for home care, congregate and home-delivered meals, transportation, adult day care and minor home repairs for senior citizens, said Joe Rossi, director of the Niles-based agency.

Rossi said the county levy is necessary to compensate for declines in state and federal funding for senior services at a time when long waiting lists exist for many such services.

“For the first time in the 22 years I’ve been with the Area Agency on Aging, we are under $1 million for services for seniors,” in combined federal and state funding to Mahoning County, Rossi said.

Ashtabula and Trumbull counties have county-wide senior services levies, but Mahoning, Columbiana, Portage and Stark counties do not.

With 23.2 percent of its population 60 years old or older according to the 2010 Census, Mahoning County has a higher percentage of its population in that age category than any adjacent Ohio counties.