The Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities has declared the agency is in a state of fiscal emergency and says it needs to ask voters to approve its first funding increase in 21 years.
The agency says its financial obligations will exceed revenues by the first quarter of 2027 and it's projecting $13.3 million in deficit spending in 2026.
"In 2004, we had 250 people receiving waiver supports," Patricia Dawson, public relations coordinator, tells WVXU. "By 2024, that number had jumped to (over) 1,200."
"Waiver supports" means providing mandated services to individuals with waivers from the federal government. These are services like transportation and in-home care, which the agency is required by law to provide.
The overall number of people the agency serves also has increased dramatically.
"At the end of 2024 we had supported 4,207 people in Butler County, 1,706 of those are infants and young children ages zero to five, and then we had about 1,000 school aged children ages six to 21, and then over 1,500 adults receiving supports," Dawson reports.
The board is funded by two county levies — a 2-mill continuing levy passed in 2000 and a 1-mill continuing levy passed in 2004. The amount collected by those levies is based on the value of a home at the time of the levy's passage. That means the revenues haven't increased since 2004.
"At the time that we passed our most recent levy, (for) a home valued at $100,000 that homeowner would have paid for $53.21. Our valuations have not increased, so if that home was $100,000 in 2004 that still is what that homeowner pays," Dawson says. "At the same time, the median single-family home in Butler County has appreciated by 110% so we haven't experienced any of that growth while residents of the county have."
Cost-cutting
The Board of Developmental Disabilities says it's instituting several measures aimed at cutting personnel expenses, including reducing hours, freezing salaries, and leaving open positions unfilled.
Per a release:
- All full-time staff will take a 2.5-hour reduction in working hours which results in a 6.67% decrease in pay.
- All wage increases, including cost of living adjustments, are frozen.
- All promotions are frozen and all vacated positions will be scrutinized before posting.
In total, since declaring the fiscal emergency, Dawson says the agency has made additional cuts equating $2.1 million.
She says those cuts are a start, but they won't be enough. The agency is slated to meet with Butler County commissioners next week to discuss its budget and the possibility of running a new levy in May 2026.
"We hope to discuss options for an additional levy between 1.8 and 2-mil which would generate $24.4 to $26.4 million/year starting in 2027," she says.
Dawson acknowledges skyrocketing property values in Butler County are a concern for many. She notes the agency also is affected a recent move by county commissioners to cut costs for some homeowners.
"Our county commissioners recently passed the homestead exemption, and that does impact us. We're projecting that we'll lose approximately $250,000 next year due to that."
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