This episode originally aired on Oct. 7, 2026.
The Levy for Developmental Disabilities in Delaware County has regularly appeared on the election ballot for years.
However, last May was the first time the ballot failed to pass by a narrow margin.
But the levy will be back on November’s ballot. This time it must pass for the DCBDD to continue providing services and programs for developmentally-disabled individuals.
Along with Delaware County, 11 other Ohio counties are facing the same predicament.
Coming up on this hour of All Sides, we’re discussing the impact failure of this levy could have on families and what's needed to keep these programs operational.
Guests:
- Adam Herman, CEO, Ohio Association of County Boards
- Patricia Hollingsworth & Howard Heffelfinger, co-chairs, Focus on Abilities
- Kristine Hodge, superintendent, Delaware County Board of Developmental Disabilities
- Chase Waits, director of communications and community engagement, Delaware County Board of Developmental Disabilities
Transcript
This transcript is generated with AI. To ensure its accuracy, review the audio file.
Amy Juravich: Welcome to All Sides with Amy Juravich. Medicaid funds a wide range of health issues. Among them, care for people with disabilities. Funding cuts at the federal level to Medicaid are expected to impact Ohio.
Coming up, we're gonna talk about how the passage or failure of a levy for developmental disabilities in Delaware County could impact many programs for families needing these services. But first, we are going to look at the importance of these levies around the state and of Medicaid in this equation. Joining us now is Adam Herman, CEO of the Ohio Association of County Boards. Welcome to All Sides, Adam.
Adam Herman: Thanks for having me.
Juravich: So let's begin on a hopeful note. I wanted to start with what impact on services and support these individuals and families, if the levy passes in November for Delaware in particular, like what will the money be used for? What do all these boards do?
Herman: Well, it's different by county, but in general, it is the same across the state in that money raised from property taxes goes to support locally funded services in Delaware County and counties across the State that is services for early intervention. So kiddos who are born with a developmental disability or developmental delay, they receive specialized therapies that can support them and ensure that whatever disability they they had been born with. Does not
Juravich: whatever disability they were born with does not you know they are still able to live their lives and it doesn't negatively impact their family they can be taken care of.
Herman: Uh, services support a lifetime of services, or funds support a lifetime of service for people with developmental disabilities, um, whether they're locally funded programs or programs funded through Medicaid.
Juravich: We'll talk about Medicaid in one second. But when one of these levies fails, can you talk a little bit about the impact? Because I'm sure you just said each board has different programs, different services. So I'm sure the impact is slightly different depending on the timing and what happens, but just in general.
Herman: So when property tax levies fail, like in Delaware County, for example, if this levy fails in November, that's 90% of their dollars. So they're operating on two levies. The first is a continuing levy that was passed a long time ago and brings in only 10%. If this passes, 90% of their property tax budget goes away. So that means 90% of the funds for services, whether locally funded or funded through Medicaid, just disappear overnight.
Juravich: And okay, so you mentioned twice now, either funded locally or funded by Medicaid. So let's talk about that other or portion. The federal and the state Medicaid program is a primary source of services and support, but what's happening with Medicaid and the money they need to spend is growing faster than inflation. Talk to me about how Medicaid dollars are funneled when it comes to these boards.
Herman: So Ohio is very unique in that our system is funded with a mixture of local, state, and federal funds. Most states across the country fund their Medicaid program with just state and federal fund. And in Ohio, we split that cost with the state of Ohio with the Department of Developmental Disabilities. And the local funds make up, like I said, about almost half of the dollars that go into the Medicaid program.
And that makes it very challenging when you have 88 different counties all asking voters for property taxes. If one of those counties voters decide that they're not going to approve that levy, that puts the entire state system in jeopardy because then the state would have to step in and pay for that county that can't. Their voters have decided they're not going approve that levee and either they cut local services in that county or... The state has to step in and pay for those Medicaid services.
Juravich: So the Medicaid services, basically the county is kind of paying a portion of it. And you're saying that's unique. A lot of like, how does it work in other places? Do counties pay for their own thing? And you know, the state pay, yeah.
Herman: Well in other states, there really isn't, I mean there are a handful of states across the country that still operate counties. It's a model that Ohio was on the forefront of back in 1967 when families came together and decided that there weren't enough services for their loved ones and they needed to create something. But a lot of states came into the disability service space after that time and they created centralized systems that the state pays for all the services and the state pays for Medicaid expenses. Oh, I... with state dollars.
Juravich: I see. So, Ohio has decided to make this a county by county situation, because each county knows its residents. Is that basically what happened? Okay. And I can see that. Ohio does love its local control, right? This is truth. But if you're using county service dollars and it's Medicaid, I mean, it seems like you always have to be coming back for more money, right, especially if Medicaid is being cut at the federal level. And everything costs more because of inflation, it seems like the county is gonna always have to ask for more money.
Herman: Yes, this is true. In fact, we're seeing over the past few years, more and more counties are having to ask for more dollars because for many years, our system did not increase the rate for Medicaid service providers. It was more than a decade that any meaningful increase had happened. So you can imagine if you had to do the exact same job you were doing and didn't get a pay increase for 10 years, there's gonna be some catching up to do.
So a few years ago, a coalition came together to support an increase for those Medicaid providers. And the state and county boards, again, split the cost of that, but in the three years since, because it's a good problem, it worked very well. We got out of our provider crisis. Providers couldn't hire and retain the employees that are necessary to make sure that all the people's needs can be met, and they, because it works so well, they can now fill all the shifts.
And when you fill all of the shifts, that's more billing and a higher level of cost, and we actually increased the rate by 38% three years ago. And that's a rate that's set by the state of Ohio. It's not like every county has their own Medicaid rate. Every county across the state has to pay the same 38%. So you have more people coming into the system. You have more who are in the system receiving services. And their level of service is higher because we're not in a provider crisis anymore.
Providers can fill their shifts. So people's needs are being adequately met. And every one of those services now cost 38% more. So it's a perfect storm of, on the fiscal side, challenges. That are making the 88 county system that exists today unsustainable.
Juravich: I, let's back up a little bit. Your organization represents the developmental disability boards in all 88 counties. So there's 88 of them in your board kind of like, you know, is, um, coordinating them together, I guess is how I can say.
Herman: As best we can.
Juravich: So you advocate for them. You provide resources, professional development, but tell me what it's like to help 88 different counties because I am sure they're all very different.
Herman: That is an understatement yeah. They are very different and that's because they've evolved locally to meet the needs of their communities and they have to also remember that Property values are not the same in one county versus another sometimes even right next door there are various contributing factors to what a county's property tax value is and We were just talking just before the show about you know, a franklin county people would think You'd have to generate so much more.
That's true, you would have to generate so much more from a Franklin County than you would maybe even a Madison right next door because Madison is less populated, more rural. Franklin is very populated, more urban and suburban. But at the end of the day, you know, the property values really determine how much gets collected. So you could have a one mill levy in Madison or Franklin and Franklin would collect obviously a lot more. Than Madison would just because of the size of the county and the number of taxpayers.
Juravich: The number of properties to tax, yes.
You're listening to All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking about the importance of Medicaid in its relationship to levies. In particular, today we're talking about the Levy for Developmental Disabilities in Delaware County, which is on the November ballot. We are talking with Adam Herman, CEO of the Ohio Association of County Boards. So if the levy on the December ballot for Delaware in particular is successful, does this solve the funding problem?
Herman: It really doesn't in the long term. It definitely solves the funding problem in the short term and that's really what voters have to remember is that we need to support the system we're operating today. County boards are statutorily required to pay for Medicaid services. It's in the Ohio revised code. We're the only local entity, local agency that is required to provide that Medicaid match dollar in statute and that statutory obligation doesn't go away simply because the voters have said no.
So we have to continue the current system, but we also have to be looking to reforms in how the financial structure of our system has been created because whereas in the past, it was possible to have 88 different counties with 88 different funding sources and 88 different decision points for voters to decide their level of support for the developmental disability system, the costs are growing so substantially at this point that that is increasingly unsustainable in communities across the state. And it's not just Delaware.
So people shouldn't see this as a uniquely Delaware County challenge. This is a challenge that is faced by counties all across the state. I know there's WSU affiliates in Marion and Portsmouth. Marion is also on the ballot this November. Sayota County is not on the ballots, but they are facing significant financial challenges down there as well. So we do know that long-term, we need to have some significant reforms in how Ohio funds its Medicaid system for people with developmental disabilities.
But for today, and for those people in Delaware County who rely on the services that their tax dollars support with property tax dollars, we need to be supporting them today.
Juravich: I'm not going to pretend to understand fully how Medicaid funding works, right? I've done numerous shows where we've talked about it and we've talked about how cuts of the federal level are going to impact the state and the state is going to have to make up a portion if they lose the federal money. The state could be penalized. The federal government wants to penalize states if they have fraud. There's lots of things happening with Medicaid now. Can you tell me about the on the ground impact that Medicaid cuts, the federal cuts are coming to the state, but then those The state will have to make up some of the money. I'm sure they're gonna go to these county boards and say, you have to help too, right?
Herman: Well, that has been the conversation so far there are cuts at the federal or cuts that have been passed at the Federal level that states Have to figure out and that's what's important to remember is Especially we go on Capitol Hill as well as in the state house here in Columbus And when we talk to our delegation representatives They're confused when we say we're concerned about Medicaid cuts because the cuts that were passed at a federal level are not designed to impact People with developmental disabilities and their families, but they are cuts The states have to figure out how they're going to make it work within the new federal Medicaid rules and with potential reductions in federal Medicaid funding.
And that's where the conversation happens, is at the state level. It's not really, it's not like Congress said, we're gonna cut funds all across the board or we're going cut funds for people with developmental disabilities. They say, we wanna reduce spending overall. States, figure out how you're going do it.
Juravich: I see. And I saw on your website that your group, you have a legislative affairs manager, you have policy officer. So that leads me to believe that your organization spends some time at the statehouse lobbying for boards and for money, I'm sure as well. So what What do these county boards need from the state of Ohio?
Herman: Well We've been having conversations with the state for more than a year now about what the future could look like. We've got some concepts, but right now we're in education mode with members of the legislature and the incoming administration on both sides. No matter who wins here in about a month, we have had contact with both campaigns with their policy teams. We actually met with one of the candidates last December to talk about the importance of property taxes.
So we're in education mode right now Because, like you said just a couple minutes ago, we're not gonna try and understand all of the intricacies of the Medicaid program and how it works. And our legislators are in the exact same position. They have so many people that come to them with many different challenges that are all significant. And they have to try and balance all of those. So we're trying to educate the legislators at the moment.
We're working with several of them on what some solutions could look like. But ultimately we know there's going to have to be additional state support. For the Medicaid program as a state federal program in order to make it sustainable for people with developmental disabilities in the long term.
Juravich: Levies have failed recently, not because necessarily the individual voter disagrees with the programs or helping people, right? Correct. They're failing because property taxes are too high, right. So what's the solution here to get more money but not raise property taxes? I mean, how do we get there?
Herman: The solution really is only to seek out additional funding sources. And for the Medicaid program, that means the state of Ohio.
Juravich: Okay. So we talked before and you said, you know, it's not sustainable, especially if people are not willing to increase their property taxes. Is there an ability? School districts have chosen instead of property taxes recently, they've tried income tax levies. Is that something that the Developmental Disability Boards are allowed to do?
Herman: It's not something we're considering at this time because we believe, and when I say the system is unsustainable, the county board system itself is sustainable and it has been since its inception. The challenge is the Medicaid component of their budget is what's not sustainable. So locally funded services that vary by county that are in line with local voter expectations, those services are sustainable. It's the Medicaid program that's not.
Juravich: Okay. So, but the system of asking for a levy is the system we have and the system we have to work in. So what would you say to a property owner who says, I love the work you do. I know what you do, I know who you help, but I just can't say yes to another property tax increase.
Herman: Well, I would sympathize. I think all counties across the state have seen significant increases in property taxes. But I would also say, look at the last time that the entity, in this instance, Delaware County Board of DD has asked for money. The last time they asked for the money was in 2011. So they went 15 years managing their budget, controlling expenses, delivering high level services in line with local community expectations. It's only been in the last few years due to situations beyond their control. That they've seen their budget explode completely out of expectations and require them to go back to the ballot.
Juravich: And who should ultimately be responsible for, you know, if one of these levies fails, who is ultimately responsible? Did you say that the state is gonna have to figure out a way to fix it, or does the county have to come up with something?
Herman: It would probably be a mix of the state and the county, but you also have to look then, if it all falls to the county which is a possibility, the county has a lot of needs as well. And the county's budgets are also stretched at the local level. The state is the most appropriate place to secure that funding because it is a state federal program and the state has incentives. When they control the rules, they control access to the program, they control why services cost what they cost. It makes sense that they should be responsible therefore for paying them as well
Juravich: And when you said that you talked with both candidates, because either way, we're going to have a new governor, and both of them are talking about trying to reduce property taxes, and they both have different plans for that. State lawmakers in the lame duck session are going to come back and probably pass some property tax bills. I mean, what are you saying to lawmakers in the next administration, to when it comes to the importance of this particular property tax?
Herman: Like I said, Delaware County is not alone. There are many counties across the state. We have 12 counties on the ballot this election. Ten of those 12 counties are asking for new dollars.
Juravich: Okay.
Herman: And the reason they're asking for new dollars is because the Medicaid costs have grown so substantial and they need to ask for more just to be able to balance their budget. So I would say it's going to be a state challenge for whoever is the governor and for the next general assembly either way because if multiple counties start to fail, you're going to need to see a state response one way or the other. And we would much rather have it be over a period of years or multiple bienniums.
That the legislature passes the budget in. Every two years, they pass a state budget. We'd rather it be over multiple bienniums and make it as low impact as possible on both the state budget and local budgets. But it's going to be there at some point. Would you rather it completely fall apart and be an emergency and be something that you have to come up with a big dollar figure almost overnight, or do you wanna invest slowly over the course of multiple biennia to address the challenge and ultimately correct the funding imbalance that currently exists between the state and the local level.
Juravich: We have been speaking about how developmental disability boards are funded from levies and their association with Medicaid dollars. And we've been speaking with Adam Herman, CEO of the Ohio Association of County Boards. Thank you for your time, Adam. Thank you.
Coming up, we're gonna talk with the members of Political Action Committee supporting the levy efforts for the Delaware County Board of Developmental Disabilities. That's when All Sides continues on 89.7 NPR News.
You're listening to All Sides. I'm your host, Amy Juravich. Political action committees raise and pull money from individuals to elect or defeat political candidates and issues. Westerville-based Focus on Abilities supports individuals with sensory disabilities. They also advocate for disability levy campaigns and are working to support the passage of a levy on the November ballot. That will be crucial to the provision of services and programs for the developmentally disabled in Delaware County.
Joining us now are the co-chairs of Focus on Abilities, Patricia Hollingsworth. Welcome to All Sides, Patricia.
Patricia Hollingsworth: Thank you for having us.
Juravich: And Howard Heffelfinger is also with us. Welcome to All Sides, Howard. Thank you. All right, so you both are not affiliated with the Delaware County Board of Developmental Disabilities, but how does your work impact them and vice versa? Tell me about working together.
Howard Heffelfinger: Well, I think one of the things, Patty and I both serve on the board itself, but when the levy failed in May, we decided we had to get involved with Focus on Abilities with the PAC to pass a levy this November.
Juravich: Okay, so last May was the first time in the Delaware County Board's history that the levy failed to pass. Patricia, why do you think that is? Why do you think it failed?
Hollingsworth: I think it's very complicated. And we've learned a lot as we've been doing this PAC and talking to individuals. I think a lot of folks do not understand what developmental disabilities boards do, what the funds are used for. And the levy in May, 50% of levies in the state failed for DD boards. And our levy was run as with including the word new. And last year, the state of Ohio changed. And there are no longer replacement levies. And so when somebody sees the word new, they think, why do you want more money? Oh, I see.
Juravich: Oh, I see, because calling it a replacement levy means it's, I see.
Hollingsworth: So our old levy is expired. Collections end this year. The new levy or additional levy, whatever it's called, is really replacing last year's the levy that's expired. But the voters didn't understand that. And as I've gone door to door and I've talked to people at community events, that's the big thing they've told me is we didn't get that.
Juravich: Yeah, Howard, did you work on supporting the the levy back in May? Like, did did you have a campaign or anything like that? Or did you just because it had always passed every time you all thought you were OK?
Heffelfinger: Yeah, the board, the agency had a committee, the Focus on Abilities Committee, that had always worked on the levy. The board members themselves, the 10 years that I've been on the board we've not been involved in the leby process. They would run the levey, they'd put up their signs and normally the levery would pass by 10, 12%. So the board wasn't involved at that time. After May, because of what happens, we lose, as Adam said earlier, 90% of our budget December 31st.
Juravich: Yeah. 90% is a lot of percent, right? So basically when the levy failed in May, you knew you had one more chance with November before you completely ran out. So is that kind of like you, you mobilize the troops? Is that what's happening here?
Hollingsworth: We had a, the PAC had a meeting and lots of people attended, many volunteers, everybody's a volunteer, and signed up to do different functions and jobs and Howard and I became co-chairs at that meeting in June and did you
Juravich: Did you volunteer or were you voluntold? A little bit of both. Yeah, OK. OK, so either one of you can answer this. Why create a political action committee? Because I'm going to just say, when most people think of PACs, political action committees, they probably think of all the negative campaign ads. They think of funders hiding behind a PAC so that they can make attack ads. But I don't see any attack ads about this levy. But you created a PAC. So why create a whole PAC organization? Very cool.
Hollingsworth: By law, the developmental disabilities boards may not campaign, may not advocate for their own levy, cannot ask for a yes vote, cannot spend any funds on campaigning, can't use any of their staff time, or facilities, or paper, paper clips, anything. Oh. Right. OK, well, I did not know that. Yeah, they cannot politic or campaign. They can give information. We have a levy. And that's informational so that doesn't always tell the voter. Oh, hmm. There's a levy. Maybe I should go vote They can't ask for a yes vote. They can even tell an individual that's being served. Hey Next year, you might not have services if you don't go vote. Yes
Juravich: Really? Yes. Not even when they're off the clock or anything?
Hollingsworth: On your time on your dime. I see. Okay. Okay, but as if you're in that person's home. Yeah. So the political action committee and that's where we're here today, not as board members but as PACs, we are allowed to advocate. We're allowed to ask for the vote. We are allowed campaign. We were allowed to raise funds and get the levy passed.
Juravich: Howard, have you had like quite the education in electioning in this past few months then? Like, you know, I'm guessing maybe a year or two ago you didn't think you'd ever create a political action committee.
Heffelfinger: I didn't think we'd ever be a part of this, and the fact that you had to realize what it takes to run an election campaign. The amount of funds that have to be raised through donations to probably, I would safely say over half of my time at least, and I know probably the same with Patty, has than raising money to fund yard signs, to fund mailers. Fund all the stuff that we have to do to make people aware that we're on the ballot.
Juravich: You're listening to All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking about the Political Action Committee supporting efforts to secure the passage of a levy for the Developmental Disabilities Board in Delaware County. And we're talking with Patricia Hollingsworth and Howard Heffelfinger, co-chairs of the Focus on Abilities Committee. So Patricia, you handed me a flyer when you came in. So I mean, the money that you are gathering, right?
You're using four yard signs and flyers and everything like that, I'm sure. And you mentioned that one of the pictures on the flyer is your daughter. Can you tell me her story, your story, what Delaware County's board does for your family?
Hollingsworth: So, our daughter is 36 years old. She was a normal pregnancy, full term, seven pound baby, healthy, had developed a very serious infection in her brain and caused complete neurologic devastation. It was not treatable. It's a virus. So, she has required total care since infancy. Is in a wheelchair, does not speak, needs tube fed, medications, 24-7 care.
Juravich: What does the Delaware board do for your family in particular?
Hollingsworth: So Delaware County Board has made our life, our daughter's life, the ability to care for her at home possible. And so early in my career, I'm a physician, before I had children, individuals like our daughter were not able to be cared for at home. Funding and financing wasn't available. Parents gave up their rights to their children and they were placed in state institutions. And I took care of individuals like that.
And so now we have services like Delaware County Board of Developmental Disabilities who assist families like ours and we're able to keep our family members at home.
Juravich: Do they help you find additional care and the services you need and the supplies you need?
Hollingsworth: Yes. So insurance, we have insurance. Insurance pays for a lot of things. It doesn't pay for everything. If you need a ramp, you need some adaptation to your vehicle to get a wheelchair in. You may need a lift because you can't lift that person. They help with those things that traditional insurance does not pay for.
Juravich: Howard, what about you? Do you have a story you would like to share on what the Developmental Disabilities Board in Delaware County has done?
Heffelfinger: I think it goes back for me a little bit further than that. Early on in my working career, I had the opportunity to work with a lot of the state institutions and saw the level of care that was provided for people that were institutionalized by the state of Ohio. And it was eye-opening, the what I call warehousing of people.
Juravich: You're saying the care wasn't adequate.
Heffelfinger: Anything but adequate. And when the developmental disability boards were created, it brought people out of those institutions so that they could be cared for by their families and to be cared forward by their communities to the level that the communities would set standards rather than somebody in a state department and it was an eye-opening experience for me at the time that has carried on for some 50 years now.
Juravich: Do you know if, I mentioned earlier that Delaware is one of 12 Ohio counties with a levy of this type on the ballot in November, do you know of other counties have a PAC, like the work and advocacy work that you guys are doing?
Hollingsworth: I'm not able to answer that question. I don't know. I don't know.
Heffelfinger: You don't now, okay. I don't know. I'd have to almost assume. Yeah. Because of what we found out that the only way to run the levy is pretty much to have a PAC. Because you can't use. I learned all that too. You can't lose the tax. Can't use the tax funding to support a levy.
Juravich: I feel like I need to take a class in election law, maybe. OK, so tell me about what you're hearing in the community. Because I'm sure early voting has started, and now is the time whenever you're probably ramping up your campaigning even more. I'm you've been doing it for a while, but this is the month. So tell me what you are hearing in the community when you go door to door, Patricia.
Hollingsworth: So we've been at events. We've been door-to-door. We'd been at First Fridays. We been at Fourth Fridays We've met the Delaware County Fair been talking to a lot of people and we are getting Amazing support for our services and what Delaware County does many individuals Don't know what we do and don't know much about this. But once we explain it to them people are very very supportive of our services, and once they understand a little bit about Nobody wants more taxes, right? But once they understand they're already paying for a tax, and so this is a tax that will go away, the old levy, this is new levy coming in, they have much better understanding of why they need to support.
Juravich: No, I have to assume, and I said this to Adam earlier, that there's a lot of people who probably did not vote for the levy in May, not because they don't believe in what the board does in Delaware, and not because the don't want to help people with developmental disabilities. It was just surely because they feel like their property taxes are too high and they don t want any more. So, Howard, what do you say to people about not wanting their property tax to pay for things? Haha, yeah.
Heffelfinger: Sometimes those are very hard conversations. But right now, our levy on the average person's property tax represents 2.5% of what they're paying. And like Patty said, most of what the levy will provide, they're already paying right now, and it's explaining that to them. And then you get into the taxing structure. When you when you think you're paying X amount of dollars per hundred thousand It's not actually the value of your home. It's the taxable value of your home so one of the things we've talked about with a lot of people Uh, you got a five hundred thousand dollar home. The taxable value is only about a hundred and thirty two thousand of that
Juravich: Yeah, what did I read on your website? Is it like $60 per 100,000 or something? 63. $63 per 100000 of your home. Taxable value. Okay, taxable value, so Patricia, are you trying to explain to people, because you said it's a replacement levy or whatever word we're using instead of new, but if it did go away, then people's property taxes would be $63 less, right? A year. A year? Right, but that's what, are you trying to explain to them that it's not life-changing money for an individual homeowner, but it's life- changing money for somebody else? Absolutely.
Hollingsworth: It's $5.25 a month. That's gross. That is not even a bump. So they are already paying part of that $5 and 25 cents a month now.
Juravich: Five dollars and 25 cents a month. A month. A month, okay.
Hollingsworth: Which is less money than I just paid for coffee across the street this morning.
Juravich: Okay, so that $5.25 a month, and you explain the impact of what it would mean for your family. I mean, it has to be, it, you know, it has just mean something. I mean if the levy fails in November and the budget is cut by 90% and all this money is gone, Howard, what happens to the people who can't afford to keep their loved one at home?
Heffelfinger: It becomes very, very difficult for people. We look at a lot of the things, people that we are able to help that can live on their own, where we help them provide for their rent, where we helped them provide for their care, that goes away. Our public school system. One of our programs that is not mandated but that we do provide is early childhood intervention and that can start as early as six months birth that program goes away if you talk to a teacher, I happen to have a daughter who teaches elementary school and she will tell you that every year she has six to eight kids in her class that have problems.
We know that through early intervention, we eliminate 50% of those before they get to school. So it's a problem that continues way beyond just the individuals that are served. It's going to be an impact across the entire county on a lot of different things.
Juravich: We have been speaking about the levy that is on the ballot in November for the Delaware County Board of Developmental Disabilities. And we've been speaking with the co-chairs of the Political Action Committee that's working on promoting a yes vote for the leby. The PAC is called Focus on Abilities. We've been seeking with Patricia Hollingsworth and Howard Heffelfinger. Thank you both for being here.
Heffelfinger: Thank you very much. Thank you for having us.
Juravich: And coming up, we're going to talk about the impact of passage or failure of the levy on the November ballot. We're going talk specifically about more about programs and services that happen with the Delaware Board. That is when All Sides continues on 89.7 NPR News.
You're listening to All Sides. I'm your host Amy Juravich. The levy for developmental disabilities in Delaware County has regularly appeared on the election ballot for decades. However, last May was the first time the organization's history that the ballot measure failed to pass and it failed by a narrow margin. But the levy will be back on November's ballot. This time it must pass for the board's work to continue providing services and programs for developmentally disabled individuals.
We're now going to talk about how the impact of passage or failure of the levy, what impact that would have on services and programs specifically provided by the Delaware County Board of Developmental Disabilities. Joining us now is Kristine Hodge, Superintendent of the Delaware County Board Of Developmental disabilities. Welcome to All Sides, Kris. Thank you.
And also taking part in our conversation is Chase Waits, Director of Communications and Community Engagement for the board. Thanks for being here, Chase. Thanks for having us. And a Delaware County Board of Developmental Disabilities, lots of that's a mouthful, but I think I got it all in there. So Kris, let's start with you. Can you tell me specifically like, what do county boards do for people who live in Delaware and have developmental disabilities?
Kristine Hodge: So that's a great question. We serve people with developmental disabilities and their families throughout the lifespan. So we start with early intervention. Those are kiddos birth to up to their third birthday. And early intervention is a non mandated service. But we do provide developmental specialists, service coordinators who write plans and then access to different therapies through a coaching model. Over the course of a year, we have about a thousand kids go through that program at point in time there's about 270 to 300 people.
We find that 50% of kids who go through that program do not need us at age three. They have aged out and they are age appropriate. So it's a hugely successful program. Besides that, we provide a service called Family Support Services. It gives a small amount of access to funds for families who are not on another funding source. So they can access, you know, therapies, camp, different things like that. And that's the service we provide.
But probably the biggest thing that we do is we fund services through the Medicaid Waiver Program. And we fund through that all kinds of services, personal care, transportation, adult day services, all kinds things that help people live in our community and help families survive and people thrive.
Juravich: When you call it the Medicaid waiver program, does that mean they qualify for Medicaid and they need these services, but they go through you to get them, or what does that mean?
Hodge: Yeah, so you don't need to qualify for Medicaid to be on a Medicaid weaver.
Juravich: Okay. Okay. I guess yes. Tell me what the waiver part means. Yes.
Hodge: So the waiver part is basically funding for services. So it's a funding source. So when you become eligible for county board services, there's a separate instrument that decides your level of care, which is your care need. And then there's a waiver waiting list assessment, which basically lets us know what type of priority you are according to the state of Ohio. If you're able to be enrolled on a waiver, then we start assessing for what that need is. So the Medicaid term comes in because the federal and state government pays for a portion of their services.
We pay a portion as well. And so the vast part of our budget is what we call Medicaid match. And that is to pay a part of that funding for those services for people. And we have. We serve over all over, now it's over 2,400 people. We used to say 2,300, but we've grown, 2, 400 people. And a lot of those folks are on the waiver service and that allows them access to a whole array of services based on their actual need.
Juravich: And Chase, last night I was looking on your website, reading some of the history of how these county boards all started. And Adam, earlier in the show with the County Boards Association kind of told us a little bit of the story where Ohio as a state decided that this board system for all 88 counties to have this system was the best thing for Ohioans. Can you tell me more about that, about the idea of each county helping their individual citizens instead of it being a state?
Chase Waits: Wide program? Absolutely and I want to start off by just saying that a waiver means that a person qualifies for institutional level of care and they're waiving that right. So they have the right to live in an institution, they meet the level of Care to be residing in an Institution. That's not what is the best thing for most people.
Juravich: Okay. Well, what Patricia was talking about before about being able to take care of her daughter's home and what Howard was talking before when he said that he used to work in an institution. Okay. You tied it all together for me with a nice bow. Now tell me a little bit about the history of why Ohio decided County.
Waits: Was the way to go. Yeah, so it took decades of advocacy by families. Their kids didn't have options. They were, like Patty said, encouraged to send their children to institutions for the care that they needed to receive because you couldn't get that in the community. Chris's title is superintendent because they weren't permitted to have education.
Juravich: Oh, it was like a school, okay.
Waits: So they did everything, but they did. They educated people in basements. In Delaware County, there's a local family that would pick up children at a repurposed hearse to get them to school so they could have education because there wasn't a system to provide that. They just weren't treated as equal citizens.
Juravich: Okay, so the state maybe wasn't the state was funding things, but maybe at the bare minimum, but each county felt they could do better.
Waits: I don't know that there was really any state funding at all, it was just left up to families to either you have the institution or you don't have anything. And so that wasn't enough. And so there's lots, lots of advocacy, lots of work that went into getting the county board system established in 1967.
Juravich: Okay. And I mentioned, I know the terminology has all changed, but I mentioned that the levy has appeared on the ballot numerous times. But I think it was Patricia who said that you haven't asked for new money since 2011, something like that. Okay, I'm trying to get the years right. But this past May, when the levy did not pass, that was the first time that your organization had to deal with something like. So I guess to start, were you surprised when it didn't pass? We are done.
Hodge: Devastated. We know that the levy is critical to the people that we support. So it was devastating. There's no other word. These are critical services for people. And, you know, while you're never confident about a levy, I don't think you ever get into that range. It was shocking. So we had to step back immediately and plan for what's next.
Juravich: Did you have to make any reduction in programs or services in the six months between May and November before you could put on the ballot again?
Waits: Yeah, we looked a lot internally. We stopped backfilling positions that weren't mandated. We did a lot of things that, kind of planning for the future. What does this look like? What can we do? And our board sat down and looked at kind of what happens next. If this levy doesn't pass in November, really at that point, when our funding runs out and end of December, they have to have a plan. They have to know what happens next and it could be catastrophic.
Juravich: Okay, tell me more about that, the catastrophic, I mean, that is just ceasing to exist.
Hodge: What? Essentially. So I mean, I think the first thing that we always talk about is what's a mandated services through the state of Ohio and what's non mandated. So we've already begun some of cutting back on the non mandated in preparation, but essentially we would have to cease doing early intervention. And that would be devastating to families and children, you know, we get them early we help people move along, we help them meet their milestones.
So that would begun. We would have two completely eliminate our family support services program which right now serves 250 people We would have to stop our contributions to local partners that help people with developmental disabilities. So for instance, we are a contributing partner to Delaware County Family Children First Council, where we group together funds to help children with disabilities. We would be have to that.
We contribute to our guardianship services board, which is a very vital program that serves adults who need guardianships who may not have family members to serve. And so that funding would have to be either eliminated or severely reduced. We, right now, unfortunately, have a waiting list for services we didn't use to. So we have 200 people on that waiting list. That waiting list will continue to grow. So we will not be able to continue to enroll people unless there is an emergency need and we would have to seek funding elsewhere.
We would essentially have to implement a layoff program. So right now we have about 96 employees. We haven't backfilled. So there's even more positions than that. So we would start to not be able to fill through attrition. So we have higher caseloads, more difficulty reaching your assigned caseworker. We wouldn't be able to do the type of outreach that we do right now. So we go through every single department and just wheel it down to the bare necessities of what's absolutely mandated.
But how that would impact people is that people that need the care wouldn't able to receive the care. We are obligated to pay this Medicaid match, this mysterious concept we talk about. I just wanna say that like in 2015, when I arrived in Delaware County, our Medicaid match was 4 million. It is now almost 17 million. Wow. So that Medicaid match payment that we have to, by law, state by board resolution in January that we're able to pay. Yeah.
We're not gonna be able to make that match commitment. And you'd have to tell the state we can't meet that match. And honestly, we are in discussions with the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities. And so they're very aware. That was my first call after we failed the levy to alert them and to talk about our funding status and what's happening. So there's just a lot of pieces to the puzzle about that. But basically, it would be catastrophic for our families and for the people we serve in our community.
Our community who has always supported the people with developmental disabilities. So yeah.
Juravich: You're listening to All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking about the impact of the passage or failure of a levy that would have on services and programs provided by the Delaware County Board of Developmental Disabilities. We're taking with Superintendent Kristine Hodge and Director of Communications and Community Engagement, Chase Waits.
Previously, before you came on, we were talking with the Political Action Committee focus on abilities and about their commitment to making sure this levy passes. What is your interaction like with Focus on Abilities? I learned a lot about political action committees a few minutes ago, yeah.
Hodge: So they did a really great job of explaining the separation. So we cannot do any type of campaigning on our work time. We can, in our off time, participate. But we stand back to not take leadership roles. So we can help by helping at events, different things like that. But we cannot take on strong roles. But we highly support them. Yeah, I was going to say, your happy focus on abilities exists. Very extreme because it's very hard to do all of it and we're not permitted to do it.
But we're extremely supportive, we're very thankful. It has come so far in the last four months. It just is amazing to me, the commitment we have from Focus on Abilities and how our community has responded to Focus on abilities. And I'm really hopeful, I'm really hopeful.
Juravich: Chase, I wanted to spend a couple of minutes that we have left talking about Delaware County. Delaware is one of 12 different counties in Ohio that are facing a similar challenge on the ballot. Delaware happens to be one of the wealthiest counties in the state, and also one of the fastest growing counties in the State. I think Kristine was mentioning your increases are due to the fact that Delaware County is growing so fast. I mean, what do you say to people about the idea that they just, they don't want their property taxes to increase at all? They would rather them go down. But you, but. Your existence, your budget is property taxes.
Waits: Yeah, I think I would echo what was said earlier today. You know, nobody wants property taxes to go up. And we are all feeling the pain of that. We're all, you know, homeowner's taxpayers here as well. But these services are so important. You know there is nothing to replace them. If the funding for our board goes away, there's not another option for it. There's no one else that's gonna step in. You know we support through these Medicaid waiver dollars six to 700 different waiver providers in our county.
There would not be funding for their services. There's not one, the impact is so much bigger than just our board. Those providers that provide the services directly would not have the funding, would not have any services to provide because there would be no one paying for those services. So it's large, much, much bigger than just our economic impact of our individual budget here.
Juravich: Have you brainstormed other sources of funding besides property taxes?
Hodge: So we have had conversations that we have pursued in the event it fails. And I would say in all honesty, at the end of the day, if we were to fail this levy on November 4th, there's very specific conversations that will be happening about how we can move forward and are there other funding options.
Juravich: Are there grants? I mean, you said you have a $17 million contribution you have to make to the state, so contribution wasn't the right word, but you know what I mean. $17 million that you have pay to the state. I can't imagine you're gonna be able to find a $70 million grant.
Hodge: Yeah, there wouldn't be grants. There would be conversations with the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities. They're well aware of our financial situation. So there are different conversations. We work with the Department of Children and Youth with regard to our early intervention program. That's who has oversight there. So we've already had a lot of built-in conversations regarding this.
I would probably be pretty certain if we failed the levy, we would not be funded to the degree that we are now. But we would be pursuing. All option.
Juravich: And Chase, we have about 30 seconds left. How optimistic are you heading into November with the election?
Waits: Oh, I wish I could say I was very optimistic. I'm hopeful. I think that's the best way to summarize it. You know, we've had lots of great conversations. We've seen such a groundswell of support, uh, for, for what we do. I think people, uh feel the urgency now to, to, to be out there and to, to advocate for how these services impact them. Um, so I would say optimistic.
Juravich: Christine, do you feel more optimistic than you did the day after the May election, or how are you feeling?
Hodge: I feel more hopeful. I think after you fail a level, you never feel the same, but I feel hopeful and I think that we've seen a groundswell of support and I'm just really hopeful that that carries on.
Juravich: We have been speaking about the Delaware County Board of Developmental Disabilities and a levy that they have on the November ballot. We've been speaking with Superintendent Kristine Hodge and Director of Communications and Community Engagement, Chase Waits. Thank you both for joining us. Thank you. Thank you.
And you've been listening to All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. I'm your host Amy Juravich. Thanks for joining. Thanks for listening.