Hamilton County property owners would pay about $39 more per $100,000 of home value if voters approve Issue 10 on Nov. 3. Advocates say the real cost comes from voting no.
Social workers, pediatricians and nonprofit leaders made a final push for the children's services levy in the days before Election Day, warning that failure would put nonmandated programs at risk. Preventative care and mental health services for children would face the deepest cuts, advocates said, according to WKRC.
The four-year, 5.61-mill levy would bring the total annual cost to about $121 per $100,000 of home value, up from roughly $82 under the expiring levy, according to Axios Cincinnati. For a Hyde Park home market value at $400,000, that works out to roughly $484 a year.
Dr. Kristin Dinkelaker, advocacy chair for the Cincinnati Pediatrics Society, argued that a "no" vote would ripple beyond children's services. Because some child welfare functions are mandated by law, the county would still have to fund them even without levy dollars. That money, Dinkelaker said, would come from other county accounts.
"If you vote no on the levy, you're actually voting no on EMS funding, other funds, you know, public-safety funds," Dinkelaker told WKRC.
That claim is an advocate's characterization, not a confirmed county budget finding.
Tracy Cook, executive director of ProKids, pointed to the volume of need. The stakes are high. Advocates say children's services provide care for more than 13,000 children each year. Cook said the county's centralized intake hotline alone receives about 50,000 calls annually reporting alleged abuse and neglect.
Debbie Gingrich, chief program officer at Best Point Education & Behavioral Health, said rising costs and staffing demands are driving the increase. Workers visit families' homes around the clock to ensure children's safety, she said.
An opinion column in the Cincinnati Enquirer by Dr. Mary V. Greiner, director of the Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, put the stakes more starkly. If the levy fails, Greiner wrote in the Oct. 24 column, the county would lose all dedicated levy funding for children's services, not just the proposed increase. The levy has been in place since 1981.
Issue 10 has drawn criticism over its size. WKRC reported that if approved, the children's services levy will have seen more than a 100% increase.
Early in-person voting continues through Sunday, Nov. 1. Election Day polls are open 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 3.
