BY ANNE MICHAUD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Hamilton County's tax levy review committee set off on its biggest challenge yet: recommending a fair and adequate funding level for the Community Mental Health Board.
The board, plagued by spending irregularities and mismanagement during much of the 1990s, presented its case on Thursday for a 41 percent increase in its levy on the November ballot.
The increase represents modest service expansion during the next five years, while allowing the board to build a three-month cushion for emergencies, said Patrick Tribbe, executive director of the mental health board.
Mental health advocates have said that even the 41 percent increase, for a total of $28.2 million annually, is too little.
The current tax levy, which raises $20 million a year, costs the owner of a $100,000 home $36.60 in property taxes annually. The tax levy review committee, formed in 1995, has hired an auditor to scrutinize the mental health board and plans to recommend a spending level to county commissioners by early July. A public hearing is set for the evening of July 1.
Mr. Tribbe's report explained that the mental health board has been spending more than it receives for several years. In 1994, the board had a fund balance of $32 million while adults and more than 400 children languished on waiting lists. County officials ordered that money to be used.
The board has spent at a deficit, with the result that the $32 million balance would be eliminated this year.
However, Mr. Tribbe said, it makes sense to have a three-month reserve, and county commissioners have agreed. The new levy would allow the board to build a fund of $10.8 million by 2003, when the proposed new levy would expire.
At the same time, the board plans to cut $2 million from its budget in the coming year by paying less to the agencies that perform services, by reducing administrative costs and by monitoring the most expensive types of care -- chiefly, hospitalization.
Spending on services would grow about 3 percent a year during the life of the new levy, according to Mr. Tribbe's report.
The audit company examining the mental health board is Clark, Schaefer, Hackett & Co., based in Springfield. The report is due June 30.
The tax levy committee has given Clark, Schaefer a list of tasks, including:
Determine whether the population being served, 17,850 people a year, is truly in need of financial subsidy by the board.
Find out how many of the people being served have clinical mental health problems, as opposed to "soft" problems such as stress. Learn whether services are being provided as cheaply as possible and whether public agency rates are comparable to private rates. Compare demographics of the population being served with other parts of Ohio.
