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Area Agency on Aging 11 seeks 1-mill levy
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 countywide 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.
This segment of the population is growing rapidly in this region, and, by 2020, some 28.5 percent of Mahoning County’s population is projected to be 60 or older, Rossi said.
The 2010 percentages for other counties are: Trumbull, 22.6 percent; Portage, 18 percent; Stark, 21.7 percent; and Columbiana, 22 percent, according to figures Rossi presented to the commissioners in a Thursday staff meeting.
The Mahoning County commissioners have until Aug. 8 to place the proposed senior levy on the November ballot if they choose to do so.
Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti and former county Commissioner Thomas Carney said the key to passing the levy is to inform the voters in specific terms as to what the levy will pay for.
“You have to tell the people exactly what they’re getting,” Righetti said.
“You have to be very specific on the services, because vagueness really raises a lot of questions,” Carney said.
Righetti said she believes this year’s high-turnout Nov. 6 general presidential election would be advantageous for passage of the new levy.