Mahoning commissioners place CSB levy on Nov. ballot

YOUNGSTOWN

The Mahoning County Commissioners this morning placed on the Nov. 4 ballot a 1.85-mill, five-year Children Services Board real estate tax levy that would generate $7,303,723 annually.

The levy would combine and replace two existing levies: a 1-mill levy, first passed in 1995, which generates $2,993,453 annually, and a 0.85-mill levy, first passed in 1976, which delivers $1,531,639 a year, for a current combined total of $4,525,132 a year.

The combining of the two levies into a replacement based on today’s property values raises more money than the two current levies combined because levy revenues are based on property values at their initiation; and today’s property values are higher than when the current levies began.

The child welfare agency needs the extra $2,778,591 in local money from the combined replacement to compensate for declines in state and federal funding, said Randall Muth, CSB director.

The commissioners also approved spending up to $20,000 in hotel bed tax revenues in connection with the Youngstown Maker City Initiative — a four-day, three-dimensional manufacturing gathering in downtown Youngstown beginning July 31.

The money will go toward travel and lodging expenses of the California-based Make magazine staff, who will cover the event, which will be based at America Makes in the Youngstown Business Incubator on West Boardman Street.

For more on this story, see Friday’s Vindicator or vindy.com