By Cindi Andrews
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The agency that assists, teaches and houses Hamilton County's mentally retarded residents will come up $66 million short of the money it needs over the next five years even if it cuts services, according to a report released Thursday.

The report is the first step down a path that could culminate in the county Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities agency asking voters for a tax increase in November. the agency's current levy, which costs the owner of a $100,000 home $84 a year, expires at the end of 2004.

The Hamilton County commissioners' Tax Levy Review Committee hired Maximus, an outside consultant, to review MRDD operations and suggest cost savings before discussing what size levy it may need.

Its conclusion: The agency won't be able to make ends meet if the 3.53-mill levy is renewed at the same rate.

"The MRDD board will be confronted by a sizeable gap between current operating revenues and expenditures over the next five years," Maximus' report said.

The state is reducing funding at the same time that demand for services is growing - because of health care advances that are helping the mentally retarded live longer. Hamilton County had more than 5,000 clients last year, a 40 percent increase from just five years earlier.

MRDD's county levy brought in $53.2 million last year, about 73 percent of its revenue. The agency has done a good job managing the money, said both Maximus and James Kroeger, a member of the Tax Levy Review Committee.

"It's such a great system," said Kroeger, who toured MRDD.

The agency provides - or hires outside agencies to provide - services in four main areas:

• Early intervention to help infants and toddlers overcome developmental disabilities.

• School-age services for those who are 6 to 22 years old. MRDD operates three schools with grades kindergarten to 12.

• Adult services for those 16 or older, including job training and placement.

• Housing for clients of any age who need it.

Still, Maximus made 15 financial suggestions that it estimated would save MRDD $27 million.

MRDD superintendent Cheryl Phipps said the agency was already working on the recommendation that is estimated to yield the biggest savings: having clients share housing. That will save $10.7 million, Maximus estimated, and Phipps said it will be better for the clients, too.

"People who live alone can get sad," she said. "They will probably be happier human beings if they are living with someone they're compatible with."

However, Phipps is concerned about some of the other recommendations, and family members share those concerns.

Maximus suggested consolidating MRDD's three schools into two. Enrollment is falling as more mentally retarded children attend regular schools.

But it's critical for more severely disabled children to be able to attend special schools near home, Indian Hill resident Cindy W. Krall said.

Her son Andrew, 12, has Angelman syndrome, a genetic disorder that has rendered him unable to speak. Andrew attends MRDD's Bobbie B. Fairfax School in Madisonville, where he's close enough for mom to reach him quickly during his occasional seizures.

Maximus also recommended eliminating early intervention help for 200 youngsters who have been identified as at-risk for lagging developmentally but haven't been diagnosed with a disability.

"The sooner you can get to children with delays and disabilities, the better chance they have of leading normal lives," Phipps said.

The second-biggest recommended cost savings - $7.9 million - would come from a 10 percent across-the-board reduction in adult services.

MRDD's board will review the report at a special meeting Tuesday and decide how much of a tax increase to request from the Tax Levy Review Committee. Even if all of Maximus' recommendations were implemented, the agency would still need $66 million to cover the remaining services - most of them mandated.

MRDD will take its request to the Tax Levy Review Committee in May. The committee must recommend by early July whether to put a levy on the November ballot and, if so, for what amount. The county commissioners then make the final decision in August.

E-mail candrews@enquirer.com