MAHONING COUNTY | 2018 levies

Mental Health AND Recovery Board

The renewal and increase of a 0.85-mill, five-year operating levy to 1.35 mills would generate about $5.4 million per year for the county mental-health board. The owner of a home valued at $100,000 would pay $43.20 in taxes per year if the measure passes.

The board has voted to allow its separate, half-mill levy to lapse at the end of 2020. Voters, however, will pay an additional about $7 in taxes – about $50 total – in 2019 and 2020 until that lapse.

The existing half-mill levy first passed in 1976. The expiring 0.85-mill levy was replaced in 2003, making it the most recent tax revenue increase the board has received.

The projected levy revenue makes up nearly half of the department’s total $11 million budget.

Children Services Levy

The renewal of a 1.85-mill, five-year operating levy would generate about $8.2 million for county Children Services. The owner of a home valued at $100,000 would continue to pay $64.75 in taxes per year if the measure passes.

The 1.85-mill levy was first approved in 2014. Children Services also maintains a separate half-mill levy first approved in 1996 and most recently replaced in 2017.

The projected levy revenue makes up more than half of the department’s total $15.1 million budget.

Personnel costs account for $11 million of that budget. Placement costs for the 186 county children currently in state custody accounts for an additional $2 million.

Children Services pays anywhere between $25 a day for each child in a traditional foster home to $125 or $400 a day for children living in group home or hospital settings.

Source: Brenda Heidinger, MHRB associate director, and Randy Muth, Children Services executive director