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YOUNGSTOWN -- A countywide issue on the ballot Nov. 7 in Mahoning County is a 1.85-mill, five-year replacement levy for Mahoning County Children Services.
If approved, the levy would collect the same 1.85 mills of property taxes as the existing 1.85-mill levy, but it would collect more money than the existing levy. The current levy expires at the end of 2024.
The new levy would generate an estimated additional $866,795 per year. The current levy costs the owner of a $100,000 home $56.07 per year. It would rise to $64.75 per year if approved, an increase of $8.68. The current levy generates $8.02 million annually. The replacement levy will generate $8.8 million if approved, Richard Tvaroch, the agency's executive director, said.
If the agency would have asked for a renewal on the levy, the millage would have dropped to 1.6 mills to keep the revenue the same, its former executive director Randy Muth said in March.
But because the millage will remain the same, the levy will generate additional revenue.
Tvaroch became executive director in June, replacing Muth, who is now executive director of Lucas County Children Services in Toledo.
Tvaroch, who was hired under a one-year contract, was previously the quality assurance administrator for Trumbull County Children Services since 2004.
The 1.85-mill levy currently provides children services with 45% of the agency's funding. The board's annual budget varies depending on how many children are in the agency's care, but the average budget over the past five years has been about $18.5 million.
The levy was originally approved in 2014. Muth said in March that without the additional revenue Mahoning children services would be "tasked with protecting children in 2024 and beyond with 45 percent of our funding frozen at 2014 levels." When asked about Muth's statement recently, Tvaroch said he agrees with it.
As of Oct. 12, the agency had about $16.2 million in reserve funds and has 114 employees, Tvaroch said.
The agency is obligated to give pay raises to its employees over the next 1 1/2 years because the agency is about half way into its three-year collective bargaining agreement, Tvaroch said.
Tvaroch said the additional funds would be used to address the "ongoing crisis" of child placement.
"Mahoning County, like most of Ohio's public child welfare agencies, is working to mitigate the impact of the foster care placement crisis. Roughly one third of the children in the agency's custody are placed in a therapeutic foster home or residential treatment center," he said.
"Due to the abuse and neglect they endured, these young boys and girls have profound and complex mental, emotional and behavioral needs. They are truly our community's most needy children," Tvaroch said.
He said the costs associated with such placements have "skyrocketed for the last few years."
This year, so far, the agency's expenditures for therapeutic foster care and residential treatment have increased 87%, from about $3.3 million to $6.3 million, Tvaroch said.
"It will take affirmative community action and investment for the agency to continue meeting these children's needs while also covering its basic operating expenses," Tvaroch stated in an email.
Children services gets 54.8% of its revenue from real estate taxes, 25.4% from the federal government, 14.5% from the state government and 5.3% from other sources, such as child support payments from parents.
The currently has 304 children in its care.