Issue 10 is a four-year, 5.61 mill levy to fund Children's Services.
If approved by voters, it would generate approximately $117 million per year and cost about $121 per $100,000 of home value. The existing levy, which expires this year, costs approximately $82 per $100,000 of home value.
What does the Children's Services levy fund?
The Children's Services levy funds state-mandated services including foster care, treatment and prevention programs for abused and/or neglected children, case management, and more. Job and Family Services (JFS) reports 13,252 children relied on services last year. The agency says about 80% of services it provides are required by the state. If the levy fails, Hamilton County would have to pay for those services out of the General Fund.
Here's a list of services from the Job and Family Services website:
- Child abuse and neglect investigations
- 24/7 crisis response and hotline (241-KIDS)
- Emergency support and safe placement for children removed from unsafe environments
- Case management, family reunification
- Kinship support to help relatives caring for children removed from unsafe homes
- Foster care and adoption
- Behavioral health services for children — many with increasing and complex needs
- Support for older teens aging out of foster care to prevent homelessness and instability
"The Children's Service levy is important and necessary to provide safe environments for youth," says Bob Anderson, director of Hamilton County Job and Family Services. "We investigate child abuse and neglect cases. Our goal is to provide safe environments, supportive services, reunification of families, or permanency for youth. We're looking at every means necessary to help children thrive, and the levy supports that."
How was the Children's Services levy amount decided?
A committee that reviews all county levies has determined Job and Family Services needs the levy to generate $144 million annually to continue to provide base-level, mandated services.
The Tax Levy Review Committee (TLRC) had recommended a 6.57 mill levy (4.51 mill renewal and 2.06 mill increase) that would cost $157 per $100,000 in home value, according to the county. However, county commissioners thought such an increase would be too much for taxpayers to bear in the current economy and selected an option that will generate a smaller amount.
Some say an increase is necessary
Placement costs alone have increased from around $45 million to $93 million, according to JFS.
"We've seen a 90% increase in placement costs since 2021. We've seen a 19% increase in children in our custody, and a lot of the children coming into custody have more complex needs than in the past," Anderson says. "Finding proper placements, residential placements, those can range anywhere from $400, $500 a day to well over $1,000 a day to find the appropriate placement that's going to serve the needs of the youth."
The agency has already made $36 million in reductions to help deal with a budget shortfall created by a rising number of kids in the system, and increased costs of care.
It's also reviewing levels of care to ensure they're balanced, Anderson says.
"We want to make sure that we have the right placements and and we're working with residential providers in that. Also looking at length of stay, so if we can step children down after a period of time into a lower level, that is our goal. Within, of course, the initial goal of removing them from custody and either reunifying with family or finding them an adoptive placement."
Other cost-saving measures underway include: looking for changes to the intake model; placing more children in kinship care rather than traditional foster care or residential homes; maximizing reimbursements; identifying non-mandated services; and lobbying state leaders to provide more support.
The state of Ohio also is reviewing its rate card, which sets rates for levels of care across the state, so it's unclear how changes there could positively or negatively affect the JFS budget.
Hamilton County already leads the state in the number of children placed with family members — the least costly option — rather than foster care or residential centers.
The commissioners have repeatedly expressed anger with the state and state legislators for not providing enough funding to local communities for the services local agencies are required to provide. According to a previous report from the Tax Levy Review Committee, the average amount a state contributes to child welfare is 42%. Ohio ranks second lowest at 18%.
Until somewhat recently, JFS hadn't seen significant revenue increases. Voters approved a levy increase that started in 1996 and was renewed several times. Reductions in state and federal funding and increases in the level of care needed for children prompted a mid-cycle "bridge" levy in 2018. Voters then approved a new levy in 2021.
The lone vote against the 2018 bridge levy was Republican Commissioner Chris Monzel who said he wanted to put off a decision. He argued Children's Services are the state's responsibility, and there would be a new governor and new legislature in 2019. He also said some trends showed a decrease in the number of children served by Job and Family Services.
