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Senior levy is a win-win for all, backers say
YOUNGSTOWN
If it passes, the new senior citizen services real-estate tax levy on the March 15 Mahoning County election ballot will substantially improve the lives of senior citizens and their family members who care for them, levy backers say.
“If we can make sure that services are available for our seniors, so they can remain at home safely, people can go to work,” said Joseph Rossi, chief executive officer of the Area Agency on Aging 11, which would administer the levy funds.
Besides reducing caregiving family members’ absences from work, services provided to seniors with the levy money can enable family members to “do the things that they need to do to ensure that they can have their quality of life, too,” Rossi said.
Rossi was referring to the “sandwich generation,” a term that typically describes people in their 30s and 40s who care for their aging parents while supporting their own children.
Former Ohio State Sen. Harry Meshel, who is helping to promote the proposed 1-mill, five-year levy, cited an example of a man and his sister who had to take turns caring for their father, who needed 24-hour care.
They cared for him either after work, or by missing a day’s work, and they also needed to hire a caregiver, whose services they could barely afford, Meshel recalled.
There are also many senior citizens living alone who may need help with certain activities and chores, he added.
“There are many homes today being lived in by one person who just cannot take care of the home they’re in, and in low-income categories and low-value homes,” said Meshel, 91, of Youngstown.
Many senior citizens need help bathing, fixing a broken door lock, installing a screen or storm door, cutting their lawns or removing snow from their driveways, Meshel said.
The levy would fund such services, he added.
For people age 60 and older, the levy would provide for a variety of services, including adult day care, chore services, home repair and maintenance, homemaker, protective and personal care services, medication management, guardianships and home-delivered and congregate meals.
The Area Agency proposes that 70 percent of the levy funds would be spent on adult day care, chore services, minor home repair and modification and homemaker services combined.
The countywide levy, which would generate about $4.1 million annually, would cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $36 a year.
That amounts to a dime a day, Meshel said.
If the tax passes next month, revenue collections from it would begin with the first-half tax bills in 2017, with levy-funded services likely starting in mid-2017, Rossi said.
The need for services to senior citizens will increase as the percentage of Mahoning County’s population older than 60 is expected to rise from 27 percent today to 31 percent in 2020, Rossi said.
Through federal and state cuts, including sequestration, the Area Agency has lost about 38 percent of its federal and state funding for senior citizen services in the last six years, Rossi said.
Currently, about $900,000 in federal funds and $300,000 in state funds annually pay for Mahoning County senior citizen services.
With the extra $4.1 million annually from the levy, waiting lists for senior services, now totaling nearly 1,000 people in the county, likely would be eliminated, Rossi said.
Eligibility for most services under the proposed levy would be “needs-based, not income-based,” with wealthier seniors making a co-payment, Rossi said.
He added, however, that income-eligibility ceilings may apply for some federal and state-funded programs.
In consultation with the Mahoning County commissioners, the Niles-based Area Agency would decide how the money would be allocated among various services, Rossi said.
The Area Agency would select the service providers, monitor their performance and assess senior citizens’ service needs, he explained.
“If the commissioners want us to have an advisory council, we don’t have a problem with that,” Rossi said.
Carol Rimedio-Righetti, chairwoman of the Mahoning County commissioners, said she did not believe a citizen advisory board would be necessary.
That’s because “Joe Rossi’s organization has proven themselves in the Mahoning Valley,” she said.
The commissioners will meet quarterly with Area Agency officials, she added.
She said the Area Agency is excellent at administering services that would be funded by the levy; the commissioners would be making an appointment to the Area Agency’s advisory board; and the commissioners would be able to terminate their administrative contract with the Area Agency on 90-days notice and find another administrator, if necessary.
In Trumbull and Ashtabula counties, which have countywide senior services levies, independent citizen advisory boards receive proposals from prospective service providers and make recommendations to the county commissioners, who decide how the levy money is spent.
The 0.75-mill, countywide senior levy is popular in Trumbull County, where it has been renewed twice, most recently last November by a landslide of nearly 4-1.