Jan. 1—The Ashtabula County Children Services Board has decided not to seek the renewal of a .5-mil levy that has been in place since 2014.

According to a press release from the ACCSB, the board asked the Ashtabula County Budget Commission not to collect the levy in 2023.

“We are so grateful for the way that the community came together to pass this levy in 2014,” Tania Burnett, Executive Director of ACCSB, said in the release. “When that 0.5-mil levy was requested we were in a much different place as an agency and a society.”

The levy provided support for the organization during the height of the opiate crisis, according to the release. Almost twice as many children were in the care of ACCS at the time, due to parental substance abuse, Burnett said.

Additionally, Ohio was last in the United States for state funding of child welfare programs in 2014, but Gov. Mike DeWine has prioritized increased funding for child welfare, according to the release.

“State funds provided about eight percent of our budget in 2016, it now represents twenty-six percent as of 2023,” Burnett said.

She praised the organization’s caseworkers.

“They’ve stepped up their work quality and efficiency and that goes a long way for us with the state and the community as a whole,” Burnett said. “We’ve been able to meet or exceed the state standards on a consistent basis because of their hard work.”

The ACCSB still has a 1.75-mill levy, which has been in existence for more than 40 years, and provides the majority of the agency’s operational budget.