Voters in several Northeast Ohio counties are being asked to consider renewal or replacement levies on the Nov. 4 ballot for their local mental health and recovery boards.
These boards provide a variety of services including crisis intervention, alcohol and drug addiction recovery programs, mental health treatment and community support for adults and youth.
Summit County ADM looks for a renewal and an increase
In Summit County, all voters are being asked to consider Issue 1, which includes a renewal and increase for the County of Summit ADM Board. The ADM Board funds, monitors and evaluates behavioral health services for the county.
“We offer the full continuum of behavioral health care,” Aimee Wade, the executive director of the board said. “This ranges from prevention to recovery support, which includes things like peer support and housing.”
Wade said the board had to spend more than it got for several years to ramp-up services during the opioid epidemic and COVID-19 Pandemic. Although the strain from both of those has eased, Wade said there are still people in Summit County in need of help.
“Our expenditures have held steady for a while, and now they’re going up as the cost for services and volume for service has increased,” she said. “This will allow us to continue to fund the agencies at standard levels and also still be able to respond to crises in the community as they emerge.”
The levy would increase from 2.95 mills to 3.45 mills for the next 10 years, expected to generate $46,539,037 in revenue annually for the board. It will cost property owners $75 per $100,000 of assessed property value.
Rachel Browne is an office administrator at ARC Recovery Services in Akron and a Tallmadge resident. She said she’s struggled with drugs and alcohol since she was 16 and was in and out of jail and rehab and lost custody of her kids in the process.
Browne said through Summit ADM, she was able to get the help she needed.
“I went through AHRQ Recovery Services’ Recovery House, and all of the beds there are funded through ADM,” Browne said. “For those first three months, I didn’t have to pay for anything. I was able to focus on my recovery.”
Browne added that the ADM board is also funding another recovery house for women and children. She said supporting this levy “can help so many people.”
“Addicts need to recover,” Browne said. “With the correct funding and everything, we can help those people.”
Dominic Catalano of Akron has struggled with drug and alcohol addiction since he was 16. He said the board covered his rent while he was at recovery housing, and it connected him with resources when he went through detox at the ADM Crisis Center. Now, Catalano’s looking to go back to school and study social work and chemical dependency to give back to the field that helped him.
“Addiction is a psyche-social, spiritual, medical issue, and everybody knows somebody who it impacts,” Catalano said. “It ravages our community and causes otherwise upstanding individuals to not be able to function as productive members of society. The ADM Board helps with reaching out to people who are homeless, mentally ill, struggling with addiction, and it's uplifting the most vulnerable of our society.”
Ashland County seeks a replacement levy
Ashland County has a replacement levy on its ballot for its Mental Health & Recovery Board. In addition to treatment and prevention services, the board also offers specialized early intervention programs for local schools and youth.
According to executive director David Ross, this is the first replacement levy for the board in 15 years.
“A dollar today doesn’t spend the way it did 15 years ago,” he said. “It’s to try to continue and grow to meet the needs of the county.”
Ross said the levy would go toward funding a school community liaison program to assist youth struggling with educational challenges. The levy would also support additional crisis services and offer competitive salaries to attract and maintain qualified counselors and social workers.
“Those are three areas that we see need,” Ross said.
The ballot questions call for an increase of the levy to one mill for the next 10 years. It’s expected to generate $1,920,528 annually and would cost owners $35 per $100,000 of a property’s assessed value.
Columbiana County looks for a renewal
The ballot in Columbiana County has a question asking all voters about a renewal levy for its Mental Health and Recovery Services Board. In addition to mental health services including counseling, psychiatry and case management, it also provides treatment for substance-use disorders.
“All kinds of things that aren’t covered by traditional insurance or for those who are indigent or underinsured,” Director of Operations and Evaluation Jennifer Whitman said.
The tax levy would go toward funding and providing services for those who lack insurance.
“This helps us ensure that everybody that needs services in Columbiana County can be serviced,” Whitman said. “We can eliminate some of those barriers with our levy funding.”
If passed, the levy would be renewed for another 10 years at .3 mills and is expected to generate $589,900 in revenue for the board annually, according to Whitman. The levy would cost property owners $6 annually for each $100,000 of assessed value.
Huron County asks for a renewal
Huron County is seeking a renewal levy for its Mental Health and Addiction Services Board. The board offers a range of services including counseling therapy, medication, psychiatric and peer support.
“We offer 50, 60, 70 different services,” Interim Executor Director Mircea Handru said. “It’s a big laundry list of services that we provide.”
The tax levy would go towards supporting current services and programs. Without the levy, the board would have to look into outside grants or shift money around to sustain services, according to Handru.
“It’s very important for the sustainability of our organization,” he said.
If passed, the levy would be renewed for another 10 years at .5 mills and generate $580,000 in revenue for the board annually, according to Handru. The levy would cost property owners $11 annually for each $100,000 of assessed value.
Richland County seeks renewal
Richland County has a renewal levy on its ballot this year for its Mental Health and Recovery Services Board. The board provides recovery, substance use, prevention, treatment, advocacy and educational services.
The board also recently launched a website called the Richland Recovery Network for those in need to seek services and programs.
“It’s very self-explanatory, and the website provides opportunity for the user to answer a few questions, and it omits any services that they aren’t looking for,” executive director Sherry Branham-Fonner said. “It’ll help them find that information very easily and very quickly.”
The tax levy would help sustain current services the board offers. If it fails, the board may have to reduce its services, according to Branham-Fonner.
“It’s vital that we pass it because the taxpayers in Richland County have been so supportive for decades,” she said. “We have a great system of care in our county, and we’re hoping to be able to continue providing all of the things that we provide now.”
If passed, the levy would be renewed for another 10 years at one mill and is expected to generate $2,443,319 annually for the board. It would cost owners $35 per $100,000 of assessed property value.
Tuscarawas County asks for an increase
Tuscarawas County is asking voters to approve a replacement levy to support the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board of Tuscarawas and Carroll Counties. The board offers treatment, crisis, prevention and support services.
“We do a lot of coalition creation and collaboration through suicide prevention groups and opioid overdoes groups,” executive director Natalie Bollon said.
The tax levy would primarily go toward improving crisis intervention services and school-based prevention services, according to Bollon.
“That’s the basis of every ADAMHS Board across the state of Ohio, to make sure that we have a strong crisis continuum in place,” she said. “In addition to that, we ideally would like to prevent crises from ever occurring.”
If passed, the levy would raise the millage from .34 to .50 for the next 10 years and is expected to generate $1,416,030 per year. It would raise costs for property owners from $12 to $18 per $100,000 of assessed value.
