05/05/2026

‘A relief’: Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities levy passes

Bryn Dippold

The Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities levy has passed by a 53-47 ratio, according to final, unofficial results with 100% of precincts reporting. BCBDD Public Relations Coordinator Patricia Dawson called the levy passaged “a relief.” “We’re just so thrilled with the results,” she said. “It’s such a relief that our community pulled together and decided this was an issue that was valuable to the entire community.” Dawson said she had been working on educating voters and enabling them to make a decision for themselves. “My cup is so full right now seeing the decision that our community made to support people with developmental disabilities,” she said. The new 2-mill continuing levy will cost taxpayers roughly $70 more per $100,000 annually. Combined with the existing levies — approved in 2001 and 2004 — taxpayers will pay $123 for services the agency provides annually. The levy will generate $26.4 million annually, supplementing the roughly $24 million collected through the board’s existing operating levies. The board hadn’t asked taxpayers for more money in two decades. The levy will benefit the board, which supported 4,293 Butler County residents with developmental disabilities in 2025. The board doesn’t provide direct services to its 4,300 clients, instead contracting out the support for things like transportation, home-delivered meals, employment assistance and more. A fiscal emergency, declared in September 2025, has led the board to make several cuts to its services already, including a reduction in staffing and work hours, transferring of operations of their building to the county commissioners and spending adjustments as part of an $8.4 million effort to manage an unavoidable fiscal emergency. Superintendent Lee Ann Emmons told the Journal-News they ended last year with 152 positions, and with this phased-in layoff and other staffing changes, they will be down to roughly 109 in December.

The cuts were largely necessitated by a 38% increase in Medicaid service rates, a 380% increase in the number of people they serve through Medicaid waivers and flat revenues. Medicaid pays 60 percent for services the board provides, and the local levies make up the difference. Part of the reason the board has struggled financially has been an increase in those local waiver matching funds for Medicaid, to keep people with disabilities integrated in the community. Waivers allow people with developmental disabilities to choose community-based support rather than institutional care — services that can include in‑home assistance, transportation, meal delivery and employment support. Currently, 97% of local levy dollars are used to meet required waiver match obligations, which cannot be reduced unless a person’s eligibility or support needs change. The number of people supported with waivers has grown from 250 in 2004 to more than 1,200 in 2024, a trend that continues to climb.

The board supported 4,293 residents with disabilities in 2025.