The interim director of Hamilton County Job and Family Services is sharing details about a possible deficit next year.
After Hamilton County voters approved a Children's Services levy in 2021, Job and Family Services increased some program spending, and increased salaries, on the advice of a consultant.
But John Nelson says the levy fund balance has been steadily dropping.
“We’re looking at a $16 million negative balance if we do nothing at the end of 2026,” he says. “With a lot of these reductions that I’ve recommended, we will end the year in [the] positive. That is contingent that cost of care doesn’t skyrocket [and] we don’t have another crisis; a lot of kids coming in with really high medical and mental health needs.”
Nelson tells Hamilton County commissioners part of the problem is rising costs.
“For example, when we started in 2022-23, our cost of care was somewhere in between $40 and $50 million,” he says. “By the time we reach 2025, we’re spending $90 million in cost of care. So we’ve almost seen a doubling of cost of care.”
He says the loss of COVID-era federal funding hasn’t helped.
The consultant’s roadmap was supposed to have left $24 million in the levy fund by the end of this year
County Administrator Jeff Aluotto says since that prediction, costs have gone up dramatically.
“That’s been a dynamic in the state that we’ve seen over the past couple of years,” Aluotto says. “I can’t say one way whether it should or could have been predicted when the consultant did this initial report.”
Nelson is proposing shifting $14 million in costs to the general fund, and to other levies, and cutting $22 million in spending.
The Children's' Service levy will likely go before voters for renewal this year.
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