Voters to decide fate of Mahoning County DD levy in November

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County voters on Nov. 8 will consider the renewal of a 2-mill, five-year real-estate tax levy for the county Board of Developmental Disabilities.

Designated as County Issue 1, it will be the sole countywide tax issue on the ballot, and it will appear as the last item on the ballot.

The levy is “very important to those people that have developmental disabilities,” said Carol Rimedio-Righetti, chairwoman of the county commissioners.

“Our voters in Mahoning County are sensitive to people that are not the same as they are and understand the need to have help for those individuals,” she said. “I believe our voters will constantly and continuously vote to help them.”

The levy funds services to “a very vulnerable population,” said William Whitacre, DD board superintendent.

The levy, which generates about $5.3 million a year and costs the owner of a $100,000 home $42.43 a year, pays for early childhood, school-age and adult workshop services and client transportation.

It was first enacted in 1992.

The levy money can be used to help residents of the state’s Youngstown Developmental Center, who will be displaced by next year’s closing of YDC, if they remain Mahoning County residents, Whitacre said.

For the complete story, read Wednesday's Vindicator and Vindy.com