ATHENS, Ohio (WTAP) - A county tax that goes towards the developmental disabilities programs is up for renewal.
The Athens County Board of Developmental Disabilities Renewal Tax Levy will be featured on this November’s election ballots.
The ACBDD tax levy was first passed in 2010 and renewed later in 2017, the levy is up for another renewal in this year’s election.
The tax takes 1.8 mill for each $1 of taxable value, which is equal to $44 for each $100,000 in the next five-year term and the tax is taken from property owners in Athens County.
If the renewal is passed there will be no changes to the amount of tax taken, but the length of the term will be changed from seven years to renewing every five years.
The ACBDD assistant superintendent, Arian Smedley said, “We are changing the term length because we just want to be good public stewards of the public dollars.”
All the money the organization receives from the tax is put into a general funding to help operate and support the programs and services offered at the ACBDD, according to Smedley.
She said as a public employee she cannot tell people to vote yes or no, but she can provide the facts.
“All those resources will go towards the programs that I mentioned before from birth through the end of life. It’ll allow us to, as a renewal, not increase taxes on Athens County residents, but it will allow us to continue to provide all those programs that we’ve been providing for many years now,” said Smedley. “It’s important to us that we continue to offer those services as we have.”
You can click here to learn more about the ACBDD and what it does.
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