ASHLAND — Officials from the Mental Health and Recovery Board of Ashland County met Wednesday morning to drum up support for a replacement levy on the November ballot.
If approved by voters, the levy will replace a five-year tax with a 10-year, 1-mill levy that was originally passed in 2001.
The property tax levy is expected to generate $1.9 million annually, a figure that represents around 28% of the board’s revenue.
If passed, the owner of a home valued at $100,000 will owe around $35 a year. Currently that figure sits at around $21.31.
A team pursuit
Dwight McElfresh, the board’s levy chair, framed the levy campaign by comparing the effort that of his favorite team, the Ashland University women’s basketball program.
“It’s not by chance they are champions,” he said.
The team’s core values of being a good teammate, working hard, having fun, practicing good communication and operating with gratitude can guide MHRB’s effort, he said.
“In Ashland County, recovery is a team pursuit,” McElfresh said.
Andrew Kinney, the board’s chair, addressing attendees during Wednesday’s levy kickoff breakfast at Ashland University, said he’s honored and privileged to serve as the chair during this season.
“I’m optimistic. I know we can do this work together. I can’t wait to get to work,” he said.
Leaders from MHRB’s partner agencies — Appleseed, ACCADA and Catholic Charities — drilled down the importance of replacing the levy by sharing which specific programs benefit from those dollars.
Programs include a school-community liaison program (levy money covers about 80% of this program), a 24/7 crisis hotline, youth and senior programs and school-based prevention services.
David Ross, MHRB’s executive director, said levy dollars touch and influence nearly everything the board’s partner agencies do.
“The levy gets involved with a little piece of almost all the programming to help fill it out because often times the insurances of the other funding sources aren’t sufficient. So it helps everything that we do at all three agencies,” he said.
He also encouraged supporters to take home multiple yard signs but urged them to wait until Oct. 1 to place them anywhere.
For more information on the replacement levy, visit the MHRB’s campaign website.