By Karen Vance
Enquirer contributor

BATAVIA - The Clermont County MRDD board will start again tonight to find a way to continue funding its programs, despite defeat of a 1-mill levy Tuesday.

Clermont County voters voted down the issue 52 percent to 48 percent, according to final, unofficial returns.

The Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (MRDD) will meet at 4231 Grissom Drive at 5 p.m., and much of their agenda will include plans for next year's budget, said Libby Feck, director of administrative operations for the MRDD.

The levy would have generated $3.2 million and would have effectively replaced a 0.75 mill levy that expires Dec. 31. With no levy in place, MRDD will lose $2.1 million of its $13 million budget.

Board President Wanda Downey said it's likely Clermont voters will see the issue on the ballot again.

"We just have no choice," she said. "We're using Medicaid funding and most every kind of funding we can find and we're still looking for other sources of funding."

She feels the issue, which would have cost the owner of a $100,000 home $30 a year, had trouble in the county because it was competing with safety services levies in Union, Pierce, Goshen and Tate townships.

The levies in Union and Goshen townships passed, but Pierce and the Bethel-Tate Ambulance levies both failed.

"I think it was too much for people to vote for two levies, and they saw safety services as affecting more people," said Mrs. Downey.

This year, the volunteers who supported the levy were optimistic that a strong grass-roots campaign would prevent a repeat of last year's 1.88-mill levy defeat.

Ms. Feck said the board, parents and staff of MRDD thought the revised levy request would make passage easier. "We really thought we had gotten to people and explained to them what this program means to the families who need it," said Ms. Feck. "We're just devastated."

Not only will the board be looking for new funding, but also a new superintendent. Before the election, the board recently voted not to renew the contract of its superintendent, Rory Benzinger, when it expires at the end of this year.

Mrs. Downey said she was not able to discuss the board's reasons because it concerns a personnel issue.