By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
There will be one additional levy on the ballot come November: one to fund the Crawford County Public Health District.
After nearly an hour and a half of debate Monday morning, members of the District Advisory Council voted 11-3 to put a five-year, .85-mill levy on the ballot in the General Election. Jefferson, Liberty, and Vernon townships were the dissenting factors on the motion.
One of the biggest factors in the consideration of a levy was the burden it would put on the county taxpayers.
“I think that was one of the big questions out in the townships: will people end up paying more with the levy than what we’re just paying now being subsidized?” said DAC chairperson and Dallas Township trustee Milton Underwood.
Currently, the health district is subsidized by the townships and the City of Bucyrus. However, the townships are feeling the strain of paying for the health district while also trying to maintain local services on a reduced budget.
“We put a levy on, it will take the place of the assessment. The pay isn’t going to come out of the township fund,” reasoned Vernon Township trustee Ted Muntis. “The money is going to be collected county-wide and go to the health department so you (the townships) won’t be assessed anything unless you put a small levy on. The taxpayers are definitely going to pay out of their pocket if there is a levy.”
“What we are assessed is about 25 percent of what we received for our general fund. That is a concern,” said Glenn Cheesman, a Polk Township trustee. “Our general funds are pretty small. This is a big concern of ours.”
“The monies that we lost from the state really hurt us,” added Tiro representative Richard Shatzer. “Now where are we supposed to get these assessment monies to give to the health board? It ain’t there; we don’t have it.”
Shatzer believed they would be better off to fund the health district with a levy rather than see the townships go under as they struggle to maintain the status quo.
“The bottom line is there’s only one place any money is going to come from – that’s the homeowners’ pockets,” said Sandusky Township trustee Thomas Rietschlin. “The most likely thing (is we) put a levy on the ballot; if by some miracle it passes, then you’ve got money to run (the health district) and it puts money in our general fund. We can use it for things we don’t have money for.”
County auditor Joan Wolfe explained that the current assessments are based on the townships’ valuations. The levy would be based on the individual taxpayer’s valuation, which should add up to the same thing, Wolfe said.
Though the total individual valuations should equal the townships’ valuations, Wolfe pointed out that the City of Bucyrus is currently under contract with the health district for subsidies. The city would have to renegotiate that contract.
Crawford County is not alone in seeking a levy to fund its health district. Huron, Morrow, Richland, Seneca, and Wyandot counties also have levies to support each county’s health district. Marion County is the only connecting county to not have a levy on its books. Those counties with health district levies range from a five-year, .30-mill levy in Seneca up to a 10-year, 1.40-mill levy in Richland.
“There’s a reason all of them have levies. It’s because there’s nothing else available to them other than the financing through the townships and the cities involved or through the levy,” argued Bucyrus Council President Sis Love.
A .85-mill, five-year levy would generate an estimated revenue of $445,215.98. For someone with a house property value of $75,000, that would amount to $22.31 each year.