DELAWARE — The Delaware-Morrow Mental Health & Recovery Services Board is asking voters to renew its 1.5-mill property tax levy and approve an additional 0.5 mills in the Nov. 3 general election.
The board has regularly returned to voters for levy renewals since the early 1980s, with a history of success dating back even further.
DMMHRSB Executive Director Deanna Brant said the board’s levies have generally passed since 1977, with one exception: Voters rejected a levy in 1995 before approving one the following year.
The board hopes to continue that track record this November.
“The levy funds the entire behavioral health continuum of care in Delaware and Morrow Counties, the public behavioral healthcare system,” Brant said.
“Services range from prevention, school-based, clinical care for youth, seniors and adults, psychiatry, case management, supportive housing, inpatient, the whole gamut.”
Brant said the levy would help sustain DMMHRSB’s existing behavioral health care services, including prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery support.
The additional funding would not be used to introduce new services, but rather to maintain those already available to residents.
Although the proposal calls for a 1.5-mill renewal and a 0.5-mill increase, Brant said the levy would have an effective tax rate of 1.44 mills in its first year because of how Ohio calculates property taxes.
“We’re currently collecting at about 0.94 mills,” DMMHRSB Communications Director Steve Brown said. “So if this renewal with a 0.5 increase passed, our collection rate would go up to 1.44, which is below the current voted millage of 1.5.”
The Delaware County Auditor’s office expects the levy to collect a little more than $23 million annually.
Since 1977, this is only the board’s second time asking for a renewal with an increase.
“We don’t take any vote for granted,” Brant said. “We understand that we have to convey to the voters the value of what they get for their investment in these services. That’s the approach we’ve taken so far.”
What’s at stake?
If the levy fails in November, Brant said the board would have two more opportunities to pass — next May and then next fall.
“If it passed in one of those election cycles, we would not lose any revenue,” Brant said.
Brant said the levy accounts for 73% of DMMHRSB’s funding, and board members and staff have spent the past two years evaluating and assigning priority levels to the more than 75 services the agency funds.
“If it didn’t pass, we would begin the process of enacting some of those cost containment measures in case this revenue would not be available to us in the future. We would make cuts,” she said.
Brant said some of the services DMMHRSB funds are mandated by law, while others are not. If the levy fails, many of those non-mandated services, despite their importance to the community, could face cuts.
The remaining 27% of the board’s funding comes from the Ohio Department of Behavioral Health and federal grants, which Brant said are less predictable sources of revenue.
She said maintaining the board’s existing services depends on having a stable source of funding.
“The only way to preserve the services is with predictable funding, and I think this levy represents what the voters support — stable, predictable funding,” Brant said.
