The renewal means taxpayers would still pay the $55 to $57 per $100,000 of assessed value they do now.
About the levy renewal, Butler County Administrator Judi Boyko told the Journal-News “all of the work of the commissioners’ offices is important but treasuring and protecting the children and the elderly brings new meaning to the services we provide.”
Children Services is charged with investigating reports of suspected child abuse or neglect and if necessary removing them from their homes and placing them in foster care or other alternative care. They also continue monitoring them while they are in custody and work to help unify families when possible.
Julie Gilbert, executive director for Butler County Job and Family Services said voter support for the renewal is imperative.
“This renewal is critical to the safety and well-being of our county’s children and families. There are no other agencies in Butler County mandated by law to provide investigative and protective services for children,” Gilbert said. “We value the support we have received from the community over the years and will continue to be good stewards of the tax payer dollars.”
Their largest cost is for placement and nearly $12 million was budgeted for this year. The agency gets federal funding to help with this expense if the children qualify — there are many factors involved in the funding but income is a big driver — but they have to match funds using levy dollars.
“We are a reimbursable system and our federal dollars are based on our placements,” Gilbert said. “It’s a match, the federal government pays approximately 65% if the child is 4E eligible, and we are still responsible for the remaining placement costs. So our levy supports that match.”
She said roughly 60% of the children are 4E eligible and her agency pays the entire placement cost for those who are not.
BCCS uses a combination of funding sources for the program, including Medicaid, the tax levy and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
The levy provides about 59% of the agency’s overall budget with an additional 13% coming from the state and 27% coming from federal sources. BCCS could not access federal matching dollars without the levy. Gilbert said without taxpayer support they would not be able to provide the level of service that is necessary to keep children safe, such as out of home placement services, substance abuse and mental health treatment, kinship support and parenting programs.
BCCS Director Shannon Glendon said they try to take advantage of every opportunity to offer services to children and families.
“We accept our responsibility to be good stewards of our resources. While we do leverage other state and federal funds, we rely on the local support to provide services to families and placement for children who cannot remain safely in their own homes,” Glendon said. “The support from our community both financially and through partnership allows us to continue our work to keep children safe and improve their wellbeing.”
Gilbert said as of Oct. 7 they had 318 children in agency custody, the average for this year is 320.
The agency recently was awarded $110,576 in performance incentives from the state for excellence in the way it handles foster children and families — recognition fewer than half the counties received. The awards recognize children services agencies in two areas, conducting monthly visits with children and parents and the timeliness of assessments and investigations.
If the levy fails — voters approved the last one by a 71% to 29% margin in 2017 — Gilbert said they are legally required to continue investigations removals, but other services they provide would suffer. They also provide mental health and substance abuse assistance among other wraparound supports.
“It really is the ongoing case management that would be impacted,” she said. “The long term effect of that is if they’re not provided the services necessary to reunify with their children then you’re going to be looking at more long term costs to the agency and the community through placements and possibly adoption subsidies where we may need to request dollars from the general fund.”
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