Health dept. seeks levy

SANDUSKY — The Erie County Health Department will ask voters to approve a 0.5-mill renewal levy this fall. Because the health department is asking for a renewal, voters will not be facing a tax increase if they approve the levy. The health department is supported by three separate levies — for 0.2, 0.3 and 0.5 mills — so the one on the ballot this year will be the largest. The 0.5-mill levy produces about $1.2 million of local funding for the health department. Collectively, all three levies bring in about $2.2 million a year. The cost of the levy is about $15 in taxes every year for the owner of a $100,000 home. The board approved going forward with the levy at last week's regular monthly board meeting at the health department offices. During the discussion, board member Mike Bixler, a former Erie County administrator familiar with dealing with budgets, asked if it would make sense to seek a replacement levy, which would raise taxes and would provide the health department more money. The health department is worried that federal public health grants will decline during the current administration, Bixler noted. "I'd like to keep this as a renewal," replied Pete Schade, the county's health commissioner. Schade said he is concerned about asking for a tax increase in the current climate, when voters already are upset because their property taxes have been rising. If the health department decides it really does need more local money, then the board could discuss a replacement for one of the smaller levies, Schade said. The health department has not sought a replacement levy since 2005, Schade said. Since then, all of the health department levies that have gone on the ballot have been renewals, which have all passed by a comfortable margin. Last week's vote by the board means that the Erie County commissioners will get a letter asking them to put a levy question on the Nov. 4 ballot. While that's normally a routine process, the health department discovered in 2018 that it can go wrong. That year, the letter from the health department to the commissioners to put a 0.3-mill levy on the fall ballot somehow got lost, and the levy missed the deadline to go on the fall ballot before anyone noticed there was a problem. The levy then went on the spring 2019 ballot instead and was approved by voters.