Executive Director Caroline Bier plugged almost $2.2 million in the tax budget for next year because they are anticipating serving more veterans, now that they have launched a radio ad campaign. Since Warren County has been advertising, transports for medical appointments have skyrocketed 250 percent from 1,225 in 2012 to 4,282 last year, according to Executive Director Rod Eversole.
Bier set the veterans assistance line item at $737,500 which is a 25 percent increase over this year’s budget. To date the board has spent $150,454 and they served 1,024 veterans in the first quarter of this year. Last year they helped 4,882 vets and Bier said they can handle up to 6,000 a year with their current staff and space.
Also in next year's budget is a plan to reopen a location in Middletown. Bier inserted $10,000 for that expenditure. They were forced to close that office last year when they lost a number of veteran service officers.
“That’s what we want to do in ‘17 because we’ll have people that can staff it,” Board President Tom Jeffers said. “That was a big thing not having anybody to staff it.”
Bier placed the advertising budget at $100,000 next year and that will include not only the radio advertising — they have committed $51,975 this year for radio spots — but direct mail post cards that will be inserted in utility bills.
“We are looking at mass mailers with the utility bills because then we can hit every person in the county,” she said. “We can do Hamilton utilities, Middletown, Butler County water and sewer. We can touch anybody that gets a bill.”
Last year they spent about $10,000 sending 26,000 post cards outlining the services they provide to people who have identified themselves as a veteran to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
Transportation for veteran’s medical appointments is also expected to rise — $400,000 is the amount on the tax budget — because their contract with Universal Transportation Systems is expiring and they hope to be giving more rides. They budgeted $350,000 this year and thus far have spent $86,179.
The final big ticket item on the tax budget is a five percent hike for salaries. She said there will likely be an across the board increase to raise the ranges and merit increases. Their wage study recommended they look at the pay ranges every couple years. There are 17 employees at the commission and the amount set aside for wages alone is $545,791.
The commissioners' salaries are set at $48,435. Last year the commissioners agreed to cap their salaries and abolished the automatic two percent pay raise new members got when they joined the board.
The five-member board gets a new or reappointed member every year, and that person used to automatically get a two percent raise over the last new appointee’s salary. The new set salary is $8,868.
Bier said the dollar amounts she set in the tax budget will be honed when the final budget is presented to the county commissioners in October.
“The tax budget sets the millage, so the tax budget is when we should ask for the most,” she said. “And then we can adjust it in the final budget.”
About the Author