WILMINGTON — The Mental Health Recovery Board serving Warren and Clinton Counties (MHRB) will place a 1-mill renewal levy on the fall ballot because the existing five-year levy from 2016 will be expiring.
With a renewal levy, there is no tax increase for taxpayers. For the owner of a $100,000 residential property, the cost is $21.87 per year. The levy passed five years ago with 72 percent support.
The MHRB is the organization that contracts with providers for mental health and substance use disorder services which it, in turn, monitors and supervises, said Mental Health Recovery Board Executive Director Colleen Chamberlain at a Monday meeting with Clinton County commissioners.
She said the levy-funded services basically are a safety net for people in Clinton and Warren Counties, including those who are uninsured and under-insured.
The MHRB website states, “Our job as a board is to ensure that services are available for residents of Warren and Clinton Counties to treat and recover from mental illness and addiction.”
In addition to those treatment services, the MHRB also fully or partly funds services for targeted groups in the counties’ jails and courts, and mental health services for minors in a juvenile detention center.
The bulk of MHRB’s total expenditures comes from the local levy. For both counties combined, the estimated property tax revenue is $6,065,160 annually, according to information provided by MHRB via the county auditors offices.
Although Warren County has a much larger population than Clinton County, residents of Clinton County receive proportionally more of the levy-generated revenue, according to MHRB Chief Financial Officer Karen Robinson, who attended the commissioners appointment.
Clinton County Commissioners President Mike McCarty said, “I hope everybody supports this levy, because right now with everything going on this is really important stuff.”
For more information on MHRB, visit its website www.mhrbwcc.org . The MHRB Board Chair is Marsha Wagstaff of Wilmington.
Reach Gary Huffenberger at 937-556-5768.
