Symmes Township homeowners would pay $40 more per year for every $100,000 in home value under a children's services levy that Hamilton County commissioners voted Monday, Aug. 3, to place on the November ballot.

The 2-0-1 vote sends a 38% levy increase to voters this fall. Commissioners Denise Driehaus and Stephanie Summerow Dumas voted yes. Commissioner Alicia Reece abstained after her alternative proposal failed to gain support.

As we reported Aug. 1, the current levy passed in 2021, generates about $81 million annually, and expires at the end of 2026. It costs homeowners $81 per $100,000 in home value. The replacement on the November ballot would raise that to $121 per $100,000 and generate roughly $117 million per year.

The levy funds Hamilton County Job and Family Services programs including child abuse and neglect investigations, foster care, and family reunification. Last year it served more than 13,000 children countywide.

Reece pushed a smaller increase

Reece had proposed raising the levy by only 10% while using a portion of stadium sales tax revenue to close the funding gap. County attorneys previously concluded that approach would violate state law, and neither Driehaus nor Summerow Dumas supported it.

"We will not be able to fund everything on the backs of the homeowners. We've got to find a new model, a new sustainable model," Reece said at the Monday meeting, according to WCPO.

Driehaus warned that if voters reject the levy, dedicated funding drops to zero because the current levy expires. The county would still be legally required to provide children's services, she said, meaning the general fund would absorb the cost.

The stakes are not abstract.

Commissioners weighed 15 proposals

The board considered 15 options over several months before narrowing the field to seven on Monday. Those ranged from a flat renewal to a $61 million annual tax increase. The Tax Levy Review Commission had recommended a roughly 71% increase, which commissioners deemed too high.

Summerow Dumas cited a recent example of the work at stake: on Friday, July 31, children's services took custody of 14 children who needed a safe place to stay, and all 14 were placed in homes by the end of the night.

Driehaus said Ohio ranks second-to-last in the country in state funding for children's services, and that a new JFS director, Bob Anderson, is coming in with additional ideas to reduce costs. The Cincinnati Regional Chamber endorsed the levy.

Hamilton County voters, including those in Symmes Township, will decide whether to approve the increase in the November election. Driehaus said the county will continue pursuing alternative revenue sources, but without the levy, children's services funding drops to zero on Jan. 1.