Issue 30: Replacement tax levy, programs and services, 1 mill for 10 years commencing in 2024, first due in calendar year 2025.
The county auditor estimates the levy will generate $4,548,000 annually, which amounts to $35 for each $100,000 of appraised value. It replaces a 10-year, 1-mill levy voters approved in 2013. Replacement levies do represent a tax increase.
The board’s mission is to develop, manage and sustain a community-driven system of behavioral health treatment, prevention and recovery services. It is responsible for ensuring that services and facilities are available for local adults, teens and children with mental illness and addiction.
To fulfill that mission, the board funds services for a network of county agencies that help families, adults, teens and children with mental illness, depression and/or addictions; who are in crisis; and who are at risk for suicide.
To ensure that its services are available to as many people as possible, Portage County’s adults and families pay what they can afford: no one is turned away because of inability to pay.
Issue 30 is needed because 69% of the board’s funding comes from local levy dollars, board Executive Director John Garrity said, noting that levy funding “increases access to treatment beyond limited state and federal funding.” Levy proceeds also pay for critical programming that state and federal governments don’t fund, such as prevention and education, he said.
Should Issue 30 pass, the board will be able to fund treatment for children with mental health issues, as well as suicide and substance abuse prevention programs that give “our younger generations the best possible start in life,” Garrity said. Such programs also offer support for caregivers: parents, grandparents, guardians and foster parents, he added.
Issue 30 would also fund programs aimed at treating drug and alcohol issues, preventing suicide and providing specialized training and consultation for police so that they may be better equipped to deal with people in crisis, Garrity said.
Levy proceeds support residents in crisis, including those at risk for suicide, so they can access 24-hour crisis information and referral services. Those hotlines received more than 32,000 calls in 2022, he said.
Issue 30 also provides funds that enable schools to conduct individual mental health screenings of at-risk students enrolled in schools across Portage County. Almost half of those screened continue in behavioral health treatment, he said.
“The levy funds services that help workers and businesses. Working adults have access to services funded by the levy so they can remain on the job. Levy funds help unemployed people with mental illness find and keep employment. Employees and families benefit, businesses maintain a productive workforce, and communities prosper,” Garrity said.
Garrity notes that for every dollar spent on substance abuse treatment, there is an economic return of $4 to $7. For every dollar spent on mental health treatment, the return is $5, he said.
Garrity also noted that, calculated on a yearly basis, for just one person, drug treatment costs some $20,000 less than incarceration. He also said about one in three high school students reported experiencing poor mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Should Issue 30 fail, the board will lose almost one-third of its total funding, Garrity said. “Catastrophic cuts” affecting all of the board’s services and programs would follow, he stated.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.