Highland County Health Department to seek 'combined and reduced' levy this November

Highland County commissioners David Daniels, Brad Roades and Terry Britton were updated on a proposal for a combined and lowered Health Department levy, the completion of railroad improvements in Greenfield and the county’s permissive sales tax receipts during their Wednesday, June 26 meeting.

Commissioners met with Highland County Health Commissioner Jared Warner on the Health Department’s request to both condense their two levies into one, and to decrease their tax revenue sought, in the November 2024 election.

The handout from Warner to commissioners Wednesday says the “Health Department is asking the community to pass a 0.70-mill levy on Nov. 5, 2024. This levy will be a combined and reduced levy, meaning that the overall amount of taxes collected from Highland County property owners will be less than the current health department levy rates. Passing this levy will reduce taxes, while still giving the health department funds for operation.”

“The main message we want to get out is this will reduce the overall tax rate for property owners and reduce the overall amount of taxes that we're collecting as a health department,” Warner told commissioners. “We’ve been able to really take advantage of a lot of grant funding from the state and federal government, and that's offset some of our normal general funds and put us in a position, after 10 years of hard work, to be able to really reduce taxes and try to put ourselves in a good financial position moving forward.”

Overall, Warner said revenues from the tax levy account for “between 40 and 50 percent” of the Health Department’s budget each year, including 43.9 percent in 2023.

“There are a lot of programs that we run that aren't funded by fees or licenses or any sort of thing that we can charge the public,” Warner said. “A really good example would be our communicable disease program.

“In 2023, we have over 4,000 individual communicable or infectious diseases that we tracked, and that we reached out to the people that had those diseases on behalf of the community to prevent that disease from spreading farther. There's a lot of work like that, that happens at the health department, that isn't tied into us sending any bills or collecting any revenue. It's just one of the services that's important as part of keeping the county healthy.”

If approved, the .7-mill levy would bring in $25 per year $100,000 valuation, or “about $2.08 a month,” Warner said. “The health department is always the very smallest, tiniest sliver of the overall taxes that are applied countywide.”

According to background sent by Warner to commissioners earlier in June, “the health department currently has two levies that support our operations each year,” with their first half-mill levy approved in 1987 and replaced in 2020, and a second one approved in 2000. With both levies due to be placed on the ballot this year, Warner said that they are looking to “join together both existing levies into a single ballot item.

“When I started back in 2014, we already had two different levies on the books, and those levies ran in back to back years,” Warner told commissioners Wednesday. “It was always very confusing as a health department and confusing to the community.

“The stars have aligned this year, and both of our levies expire at the same time. There's a little provision in Ohio Revised Code that Alex [Butler, county auditor] helped point out to us, that allows us to take levies that expire in the same year and are for the same purpose and merge them together into a single ballot initiative. That's where the combined part of this comes from. We're taking those two existing levies, merging them together, and then we're reducing the overall rate as well.”

Daniels asked what the Health Department’s current “effective collected rate” is with the two levies. Butler said that the “full rate” of the two levies (each a half mill) amounts to one mill, but the “effective rate of both those levies together is .71 [mill].”

According to commission clerk Ashleigh Willey, a resolution for the levy is expected to be on commissioners’ July 7 agenda.

In other discussion, Greenfield City Manager Todd Wilkin invited commissioners to attend the final inspection for the village’s railroad project to be held Thursday, June 27, marking the end of the grant-funded upgrade.

Commissioners contributed $125,000 of the $1.7 million in grant match dollars for the overall $3.4 million upgrade. The grant was awarded to “repair and rehabilitate 29.5 miles of track from the Indiana & Ohio Railway connection in Midland to Greenfield in order to ensure the line’s continued existence,” an announcement in March 2020 said.

“We did receive notification yesterday that our railroad project is completed, so I wanted to come over and thank the commissioners for your financial commitment into that project,” Wilkin said. “Without that commitment, you know, the railroad wouldn't be where we are today.

“Tomorrow morning at 9 is the inspection. It’s kind of a cool opportunity to be able to high rail the railroad, just to see it from that perspective, and then to see the businesses that are affected directly by our rail.”

As noted by Wilkin in a meeting with commissioners last year, Huhtamaki, Candle-lite and Adient all depend on the railroad for their operations. The upgrade included elevating the railroad from a Class I, 10-mile-per-hour railroad to a Class II, 25-mph railroad.

Wilkin also told commissioners that Greenfield is planning a celebration for their “225th birthday,” scheduled for Sept. 14.

“We did win a grant to help fund a fireworks show, actually, so that's about $10,000,” Wilkin said.

Additional details are expected in the coming months.

• Highland County Auditor Alex Butler shared the county’s permissive sales tax receipt report for June 2024, with the monthly total back on the positive side compared to the same month in 2023.

As previously reported, in May, the monthly permissive sales tax receipt total reflected a decrease from the same month in 2023 for the first time since November.

The monthly total for June 2024 was $819,806.61, a four-percent increase over last June ($790,560.82). With the first half of 2024 complete, the county has collected $4,776,951.07, a 3.2-percent increase over the same time period in 2023.

• Commissioners approved two different subgrant agreements for Highland County Community Action Organization, one with Goodwill Easter Seals Miami Valley and one with Workforce Services Unlimited, Inc. Both contracts are for Highland County’s “Comprehensive Case Management Employment Program, better known as our Youth Employment and Education Program,” according to HCCAO deputy director Tara Campbell.

“There's 14 activities that are done through that program, and they are required to be procured out, all but the eligibility” Campbell said, adding that the eligibility is done by HCCAO.

According to Campbell, Goodwill Easter Seals Miami Valley and Workforce Services Unlimited submitted the winning bids.

“WSU, we've contracted with for a long time,” Campbell said. “Goodwill Easter Seals is a new contract. They currently contract for the youth program in Greene County and do a great job, and they also bring a lot of other resources to the table for youth. They have a lot of homeless resources for kids, have a lot of additional resources for single youth parents. It’s pretty exciting to have them come aboard.

“Our youth team, we have one person through Community Action, and then there'll be one staffed through each of these contracts, all located at the OhioMeansJobs Center.”

As also noted by Campbell, the program is funded through Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and Youth Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).

• In an unrelated discussion with Community Action, commissioners heard from Brenda Whitt and signed off on two requests for mortgage subordinations for homeowners who had work done through the Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP).

“We've done rehab on both of the houses,” Whitt said. “There is an amount owed. After five years, it dwindles down and, once the five years is up, we release the lien, and they do not owe any funds after that. They’ve both paid what their amount is and met their obligation.”

• Commissioners voted 3-0 to approve a resolution authorizing support for preparation and submittal of an application by lead applicant, Vinton County, to participate in the USDOT’S Active Transportation Infrastructure Investment program (ATIIP) and execute contracts as required. In a separate motion, also approved was the execution of a letter of support for the application.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, ATIIP “is a new competitive grant program created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to construct projects to provide safe and connected active transportation facilities in active transportation networks or active transportation spines.

“It's basically about the walking bike trails,” Roades said of the application. “ODOT has been putting in a lot of money to try to connect railroads, and instead of having a railroad or bike trail that's 50 miles long, trying to connect a 50-mile one into another 30-mile one from county to county.”

• Commissioners said they received a quote from Ultra Pro Professional Painting for repainting inside the Administration Building. No action was taken, pending other quotes, but they said the work would entail painting nearly all of the building’s interior.

• Highland County Treasurer Vickie Warnock reported that property tax bills are going to be sent Friday, June 28.

Also approved were the following resolutions:

• A request from the Board of Elections for an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds in the amount of $4,500 to 2275 Security HAVA Grant fund.

• A budget modification within the 1000 County General Fund in the amount of $1,687.45.

• Commissioners authorize a transfer from County, Transfers Out to Records Preservation 2280 in the amount of $2,500. Also requested is an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds in the amount of $2,500. Daniels said this for the county to hold “another shred day” to destroy county records “the state no longer requires us to keep.”

• A request from the Engineer to declare a 1996 DuraPatcher and a 1997 air compressor as no longer needed by the County and obsolete, under ORC 307-12 (A)(1). Commissioners declared the listed items to be surplus property and no longer needed by the county.

For more from Wednesday’s meeting, see the story at: https://highlandcountypress.com/news/marcs-radio-security-update-rocky-….

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