Wednesday, November 7, 2018
By JUSTIN DENNIS
jdennis@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning County voters on Tuesday backed the increase of a 1.35-mill, five-year operating levy for the county Mental Health and Recovery Board and approved renewal of a 1.85-mill levy that makes up about half of the county Children Services budget.
In Austintown, residents voted for a 3.2-mill, five-year levy to maintain the level of police service in the township. That levy replaces the department’s current 2.4-mill operating levy and increases it by another 0.8-mill.
The MHRB measure passed with 56 percent of the vote, according to unofficial election results from the Mahoning County Board of Elections.
“We’re excited and thank the people that voted for us,” Duane Piccirilli, MHRB executive director, said Tuesday. “The people that didn’t – we’re going to prove to them that we’re going to spend the money wisely.
“I know it was a big ask. Whenever you ask people to give more money, it’s a big ask. I can’t tell you how thankful I am that it passed.”
The levy will generate about $5.4 million, close to half of the board’s $11 million annual budget. It will cost the owner of a $100,000 home $43.20 per year.
Piccirilli said Tuesday the board will first look to establish a county-wide crisis response system with dedicated responders such as addiction professionals at schools across the county and divert more money to residential treatment programs.
The Tuesday ballot measure combined the board’s existing 0.85-mill levy with its other half-mill levy into one levy. The board voted not to renew that half-mill levy, upon passage of its replacement. The about $900,000 it’s expected to raise in 2019 and 2020 will create a competitive grant program to fund infrastructure projects for agencies that serve the board.
County voters also renewed a 1.85-mill operating levy for county Children Services by 67 percent of Tuesday’s vote.
The five-year levy will generate about $7.6 million, which is about 60 percent of Children Services’ annual budget. It will continue to cost the owner of a $100,000 home $64.75 per year.
“Tuesday’s favorable vote was critically important, as the opioid epidemic has increased the number and complexity of the agency’s cases,” Executive Director Randy Muth said in a statement Tuesday.
Children Services spends about $2 million per year on placement costs for each of the 186 Mahoning County children currently in state custody, Muth said last month.
The number of child abuse and neglect investigations conducted by the agency rose 35 percent last year, according to Muth. The number of children removed from their homes due to opioid use rose 41 percent between 2016 and 2017.
Renewal and increase of a 2.4-mill operating levy for the Austintown Township police department to 3.2 mills passed by 54 percent of the vote.
The levy will generate about $1.9 million for the department per year. The cost to the owner of a home valued at $100,000 will increase from $51.92 to $112 per year.
Trustee Jim Davis on Tuesday thanked voters and the police department.
“We realize this is going to mean sacrifices in people’s homes; that they have to pay additional tax dollars,” he said. “We obviously want to continue to give them a great police department; the great services that they’re used to.”