Agency on aging pushes for senior levy on ballot

November 23, 2015 at 8:08p.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

An official with the Area Agency on Aging 11 is continuing to make a pitch to have a senior-citizens service levy on the March 15 primary-election ballot.

Joseph Rossi, the agency’s chief executive officer, told Mahoning County commissioners during their meeting Monday that the 1-mill, five-year, real-estate tax measure would fund services for people age 60 and older in an effort to keep them in their homes.

Services would include meals, personal care, protection from exploitation and abuse, adult day care, medication management and home repair and maintenance, he noted.

The levy would bring in about $6 million annually for those and other services and would cost the owner of a $100,000 home roughly $46 a year, representatives with AAA and Compass Family and Community Services said when they presented the proposal to commissioners at a Nov. 5 staff meeting.

Rossi estimated that about 30 percent of Mahoning County residents are age 60 or over and that the figure is expected to increase to 33 percent by 2025.