The Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities is asking voters to approve an additional 2 mills levy on the may ballot.
The agency declared a fiscal emergency in September 2025 after projecting a $13.3 million spending deficit for 2026.
The Board of Developmental Disabilities supports more than 4,000 Butler County residents, including more than half who are infants, young children or school-age children, by providing or connecting them with services to help them live and work in their communities.
The existing levies — passed in 2000 and 2004 — don't increase as home values increase, and generate the same amount of funding as they did at the time they were passed. Meanwhile, Public Relations Coordinator Patricia Dawson says demand has increased dramatically for federally mandated services helping people live independently.
"Since 2004, since our levy last passed, those services have increased by 380%. We had 250 people enrolled in those services in 2004, and now we have, (as of) 2024, 1,200 people enrolled in those services," she says, adding, "Even if we wanted to, we couldn't make reductions in that. Once a person is enrolled in a waiver-funded support, you legally cannot dis-enroll them from that."
"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.
Dawson says the agency already has made $3.7 million in budget and wage cuts.
"We've reduced our operating hours, which in turn turned into about a 7% decrease in pay for all of our staff. Across the board, we have freezes on promotions and vacancies. We've made some changes to some of our benefits that our staff are receiving, and then finally, as a last ditch effort, we also have started to cut some of our services to people that we support," she says.
If approved, homeowners would pay an additional $70 per $100,000 of home value annually.
The existing 2-mill continuing levy passed in 2000 and 1-mill continuing levy passed in 2004, combined, cost $53.21 per $100,000 of home value, based on the value of the home in 2000 and 2004.
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