The Lucas County Citizens Levy Review Committee unanimously approved a resolution Monday recommending that the county commissioners place a new 1.5-mill five-year Lucas County Children Services levy on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Randall Muth, LCCS executive director, presented the request during a 30-minute committee meeting at One Government Center. About 20 attended the public event.
The tax would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $52.50 annually, starting in 2025.
Based on data provided by the county auditor, a 1.5 mill levy passed in 2024 would generate $13,705,968 a year, which is what LCCS used for their projections, Mr. Muth said, noting that the auditor will certify the exact amount the new levy would generate on or before the commissioners meet July 23 to consider the measure.
“There’s more need in our community [in children’s services] than we’ve ever had,” Lucas County Levy Review Committee chairman Tom Susor said in an interview after the meeting. “No one on this committee enjoys levies, but no one also enjoys seeing children abused or not provided for, not cared for.”
Mr. Muth said that unless the levy is passed, LCCS will not be able to maintain solvency and will have to cut child placements and services.
He cited increased salary expenses and child placement costs and noted that the agency has custody of 846 children. Placement costs have increased by 58 percent in the past two years, while employee compensation is projected to increase by 3 percent annually.
On June 27, Lucas County Children Services trustees unanimously approved a resolution asking the county Citizens Levy Review Committee to consider placing a new five-year, 1.5-mill levy on the Nov. 5 ballot instead of the renewal of an expiring 1.8-mill levy, with a 1.5-mill increase.
The meeting was held after county commissioners’ legal staff discovered that under a relevant state statute, the expiring levy doesn’t come up for renewal until 2025, Mr. Muth said.
The Citizens Levy Review Committee on June 6 approved, also unanimously, a resolution to recommend that county commissioners place the renewal of an expiring 1.8-mill levy, with a 1.5-mill increase — as one item — on the ballot.
The resulting overall 3.3-mill tax would generate $34,655,402 a year and cost the owner of a $100,000 home $102.40 in tax annually, with collection of the levy to begin in 2025.
Mr. Muth said his agency did consult with an attorney internally and with the Ohio Department of Taxation, who didn’t find anything wrong with placing the item on the ballot.
However a later review by the commissioners staff determined that it would be in violation of Ohio law, according to which the renewal of the existing 1.8-mil levy can’t happen before the levy expires in November 2025, he noted.
“The tax laws in Ohio are not a model of clarity,” Mr. Muth said during Monday’s meeting, repeating what he said during the LCCS meeting on June 27.
The logic behind the agency’s new levy request is that should the new levy pass, it would carry the agency — with a total of a 3.3-mill tax to be collected — through 2025, when the old 1.8-mill could be renewed, thus continuing the collection of the desired tax revenue in its totality in 2026 and on, Mr. Muth reiterated Monday.
“What we were going to do in one election, we are now going to be doing in two,” he said of his agency’s levy requests.
First Published July 8, 2024, 8:41 p.m.
