ELYRIA – The Lorain County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities will ask voters in March to renew a levy that provides about $8.5 million annually for the agency.
Amber Fisher, MRDD superintendent, said the agency`s board decided against asking voters to increase the amount the levy would bring in despite facing rising costs and the possibility that the agency could lose nearly $500,000 thanks to changes in state law starting in 2011.
“We feel the economic climate of Lorain County is such that we can go for a renewal and cope with some of those external pressures,” she said.
The 1.6875-mill levy, which costs the owner of a $100,000 home about $34 a year, is one of two levies totaling about $19.1 million that fund MRDD. The agency also gets about $15.6 million in state and federal funding.
In 2008, Fisher said, the agency has a projected budget of about $36 million.
Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.
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