BY STEVE KEMME
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON -- On the Nov. 3 ballot, Butler County voters will face two levies for services to children.
Officials of the agencies proposing them hope the presence of two levies on the ballot won't confuse voters and result in both being defeated.
"Time will tell," said Linda Lee Smith, public information officer for Butler County Children Services. "We certainly want both levies to pass."
Children Services has a five-year, 2.4-mill levy on the ballot. It would replace a 2-mill levy that expires next year and would mean the owner of a $100,000 house would pay an additional $33 per year in property taxes. It will be listed on the ballot as Issue 8.
The Butler County Mental Health Board and the Alcohol & Drug Addiction Services Board of Butler County (ADAS) jointly proposed a five-year, 1.5-mill levy. It will be Issue 9 on the ballot.
Those two agencies would use the $7.6 million per year it would generate to expand mental health services and drug and alcohol addiction services to children and teen-agers.
The levy would cost the owner of a $100,000 home an additional $52 per year in property taxes.
John Staup, mental health board executive director, said he thinks having the two levies on the ballot at the same time could be beneficial to both. "It gives us the opportunity to clarify the two levies and to explain the relationship between the organizations," he said.
Children Services wants the 0.4-mill levy increase to maintain services for an increasing number of abused and neglected children. The levy increase would generate $12.3 million over five years. The cost of caring for children in the agency's custody rose from $5.5 million in 1993 to $9.3 million last year, according to Children Services' records. The number of children in the agency's custody that it's financially responsible for increased from 685 in 1993 to 951 in 1997.
Ms. Smith attributed this dramatic jump in abused and neglected children to divorce, the absence of extended-family support, the rise in single-parent families and increasing isolation and violence within homes.
"We are the safety net for all kids," she said. "We contract with other agencies and refer children to other agencies. But when they can't serve them, we're responsible for them."
The mental health board and ADAS plan to use the levy money primarily for more education, prevention and treatment services to adolescents, children and their families.
"We're trying to emphasize prevention and early intervention," Mr. Staup said. "In the past, there's been more lip service than resources given to prevention. This levy would put substantial resources into prevention."
Children Services has never before asked for a levy increase. The mental health board has a bad track record for levy passage. Since 1985, the agency has failed three times to win voter approval for levy increases.
Mr. Staup said he's optimistic about this levy because the general economy is strong, the levy focuses almost exclusively on children and by combining the levy proposals of two agencies, the levy should have a broader appeal.
The services the levy would finance would address not only mental health problems, he said, but also the resulting societal ills -- delinquency, youth violence and failure in school.
"Prevention has always been the last thing funded and the first thing cut," Mr. Staup said. "With this levy, we're saying that prevention is first. We're convinced it will make a difference."
