Levy would fund care for kids taken from addicts

A southeastern Ohio county is seeking more taxes to aid the most vulnerable victims of the opiate crisis — children.

When parents or guardians overdose on heroin or fentanyl, sometimes passing out in the front seat of their car and leaving children strapped into car carriers behind them, the children are taken away. To raise funds to help these displaced children, Hocking County wants to raise property taxes with a 1-mill levy that would be on the ballot in November.

“When parents overdose, no one thinks about where the kids are going to go, or who is going to support their care,” said Hocking County Treasurer Diane Sargent.

The owner of a home valued at $100,000 would pay an additional $35 in property taxes if the levy passes, Hocking County Auditor Ken Wilson said.

Overall, county officials expect the tax would raise about $600,000 more to care for the children, Sargent said. Wilson and Sargent said the money from the levy would be designated for the specific purpose of helping place and keep Hocking County children in foster homes or private residential healthcare facilities.

Last year, the county was billed $300,000 for the care of children whom South Central Ohio Job and Family Services could not care for. The children were sent to private care facilities outside the county, sometimes as far away as Toledo.

Jody Walker, executive director of South Central Ohio Job and Family Services, said the cost of caring for these children has been increasing for about five years. Kids need to be in custody longer because their parents are addicted to opiates. And their parents’ addiction can sometimes exacerbate mental- and behavioral-health issues in the children.

“This is a serious substance-abuse issue we’re dealing with here. And it’s really impacting the kids,” Walker said. “I don’t see any end in sight.”

The county is spending more than double the amount it has allotted to helping kids, according to Wilson.

“So we’re adding this to the levy. The people down here are saying ‘We’re taxed to death,’ but we don’t know where else to get the money to take care of these children,” Sargent said.

Collection of the taxes would begin in January and run for five years, Wilson said. If the county commissioners wanted to continue the levy after that, it would have to be voted on again.

“And who knows, we might not need the funds in five years,” Wilson said.

But now, he said, the need is substantial.

“This kind of care is bankrupting the county,” Sargent said. “People don’t realize how bad it’s hurt down here.”