By Brian Massie, A Watchman on the Wall
Let’s “pull back the curtain” on the two Senior Services property taxes collected by the Lake County Commissioners. We thank Ms. Alyea Barajas, Senior Services Manager, for her total transparency in answering our questions for this article on the senior services property tax levies.
Here is the Lake County Auditor’s Schedule A for the collection year 2025. The estimated annual revenue for the two Senior Services levies is $4,637,474, which is 94% of total revenue if everyone paid their tax bill.
The Commissioners control a seven member advisory board and the board decides who gets what.
https://www.lakecountyohio.gov/senior-services/home/senior-citizens-advisory-panel
“Lake County’s Senior Levy was first approved by voters in November, 1992. In November 2017, voters approved a levy renewal and increase resulting in a total levy collection of 0.8 mills for five years. Levy funding is reserved for providing or maintaining senior citizen services or facilities and is authorized by sections 307.694, 307.85 and 5705.19 of the Ohio Revised Code.”
“To guide the effective use of funds, the Lake County Board of Commissioners established the Lake County Senior Citizens Advisory Panel in 2012. The Panel acts as an advisory and recommending body, helping ensure that levy dollars are distributed fairly and strategically to benefit the county’s growing older adult population.”
“Levy funds are distributed to various senior services agencies in Lake County and help fund programs such as senior center activities, congregate meals, home-delivered meals, non-medical home health care services, Adult Protective Services, volunteer guardian services, non-medical in-home care, volunteer opportunities, social work services, and more.”
“The Senior Citizens Advisory Panel consists of seven members appointed by the Board of Lake County Commissioners. The Panel serves as an advisory and recommending panel to the Lake County Board of Commissioners to facilitate equitable and beneficial allocation and distribution of the funds derived annually from the Lake County Senior Services Levy.”
:If you have questions or need more information, please contact Alyea Barajas, Senior Services Manager, at alyea.barajas@lakecountyohio.gov or by calling (440) 350-2748.“
Current Panel Members
Lawrence W. Sterk – Chair
Lyle D. Shull
Virginia (Jenna) Bing
Gregory J. Giegerich
John R. Hamila
David W. Bennett
William R. Tyers
So where does the money go? Here is the information provided to us by Ms. Barajas.
Here are the details for the Council on Aging and the other County-Wide Agencies.
This is just the start of our investigations into how the revenue is disbursed. We are going to next “follow the money” to the Lake County Senior Centers. First up will be the Mentor Senior Center. We will expose how they are not looking out for the best interests of the seniors of Lake County that they purport to serve. Note to Mentor officials, you better “gird your loins”.
When I reviewed the disbursements, I could not help but just shake my head when I saw that Laketran got $5,000 to cover their “Dial-a-Ride” services. Laketran has over $50 million in cash, and cannot spend their sales tax revenue fast enough. Director Ben Capelle and Board Chairman Brian Falkowski should do the right thing and return the $5,000 to the Senior Services Board so the money could be better spent. My calls to Director Capelle and Chairman Falkowski to rescind the 1/4% sales tax for a period of time went totally unheeded. The problem with government entities is that they will NEVER give money back to the people, and no one has the spine to make the taxing authority do what is in the best interest of the over-taxed people.
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Categories: Community Activism, Lake County - General, Lake County Politics, Uncategorized