Overview: Information on voted public safety levies
As a part of the Association’s research to aid education about the importance of property taxation, CCAO is putting together information about the different purposes for which property taxes are levied. This article, available as a standalone document here, concerns property taxes levied for safety services across the state at all levels of local government.
Levies for any of the following purposes are categorized as "Safety": Ambulance, EMS, Fire, Police, Drug Task Forces, 9-1-1 Systems, Jails, Criminal Justice, County Sheriffs, and operating levies for special districts that provide EMS, Fire, and/or Police services.
Safety levies are the most common type of property tax levies, with just under 4,600 levies statewide, out of a total of 17,145 levies statewide.
Safety levies generated an estimated $1.7 billion in TY 2024, the fourth highest total of any purpose classification. The purposes that generated more property tax revenue were, in order, primary/secondary education, general government operations, and human services.
The population served by safety levies is nearly the entire state (2020 Census figures):
- Ohio Population: 11,799,448
- Municipalities with Safety Levies: 6,377,201
- Townships with Safety Levies: 5,144,508
- Sum of Municipalities and Townships with Safety Levies: 11,521,709 (97.6%)
A map of these communities is below.
When factoring in the counties that have voted safety levies and special districts that are funded by safety levies, and when including general fund dollars from inside millage used for safety, it is likely that every Ohioan receives safety services funded through property taxes.
To try to reach an estimate of the safety personnel funded by property taxes, CCAO examined list of all current collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) on the State Employment Relations Board’s website. CBAs were filtered for just those with safety classification bargaining unit IDs and those in other bargaining units that were likely safety personnel (such as if the listed union/local was the Fraternal Order of Police or the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association). These CBAs include the size of the bargaining unit (the number of employees it covers).
The CBAs were then matched to the employer’s top government unit with those that levy voted safety property taxes.
From CCAO’s estimates, there are 44,523 employees in safety-related CBA bargaining units statewide. Of those, 32,278 (72.5%) are employed by an entity that has a voted safety levy.
The information presented above is estimates by CCAO staff using publicly available data. The data is drawn from the Ohio Department of Taxation, the Ohio State Employment Relations Board, and the U.S. Census Bureau.
ODJFS releases details on new SNAP County Payment Error Review (PER) Process
House Bill 434, passed in November 2025, requires the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) to develop a methodology and system to determine county by county SNAP payment error rates (PER). This provision is in direct response to the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act by Congress last summer, which requires Ohio to have a statewide PER below 6% to avoid paying a cost of the state’s SNAP benefit share.
ODJFS convened a workgroup that included county JFS agency staff, the Ohio Job and Family Services Directors’ Association, and CCAO members and staff to develop a methodology that generally follows the Quality Control Review Handbook (FNS-310) published by the U.S. Food and Nutrition Service (FNS).
ODJFS recently announced the details of the new county SNAP PER calculation process:
- Start Date: April 5, 2026
- Monthly Case Reviews:
- Large counties: 25 cases
- Medium counties: 20 cases
- Small counties: 15 cases
- Timeline: Cases assigned on the 5th of each month for the previous month; reviews due by the 5th of the second month (approximately 60 days).
- The review will only be a desk review. Client interviews are not required.
- ODJFS will have a review tracking tool that counties will use for the reviews.
- ODJFS will review a subset of cases and return any errors for correction. Disputes can be escalated to the ODJFS Quality Control Unit.
- Counties with a cumulative payment error rate of 6% or higher after any quarter must implement a Corrective Action Plan.
- Each county JFS agency will designate one or more people responsible for conducting the review and certifying results to ODJFS.
- ODJFS must submit quarterly county PER reports to the General Assembly. The first report must be submitted by June 30, 2026.
Members with questions about this new process should contact Rachel Reedy at rreedy@ccao.org.
2026 CCAO Roster now available digitally
 The 2026 version of the CCAO Roster, the Association's flagship publication, is now available online! You can access it on our website's homepage or by typing "ccao.org/roster" into your browser's address box.
The Roster includes photos and contact information for all of Ohio's 258 commissioners, 22 county council members, and both county executives. It also has other information for each county, such as their meeting dates and key staff.
The physical version of the Roster is still in production. The Association will notify membership when the bound versions are shipped. Top Top NACo provides update on ADA Title II web-based accessibility requirements
NACo recently met with the U.S. Office of Budget and Management to discuss the cost for counties to comply with upcoming web-based accessibility requirements. NACo anticipates that the U.S. Department of Justice will release an adjusted Interim Final Rule that will reduce the implementation cost.
Concerns have arisen regarding the cost of bringing all county websites and digital presences in complication with the Americans with Disabilities Act Title II digital accessibility requirements.
NACo has produced an overview of the compliance requirements, available here.
Congress considering surface transportation infrastructure bill with beneficial changes for counties
Congressional negotiations are ongoing for the Bridges and Safety Infrastructure for Community Success (BASICS) Act. The bill, among other provisions, would expand the Surface Transportation Block Grant and amend formula funding for bridges and safety infrastructure to provide direct funding for counties.
More information about the bill is available on NACo's website.
The bill has the support of NACo, the National Association of County Engineers, and other national associations of local governments.
NACo is asking counties to express their support for the bill to their federal representatives, especially Republican representatives to increase the likelihood the bill is included in the final reauthorization package. Contact information for key staffers of Ohio's congressional Republicans can be found here.
NACo has prepared a sample letter for counties to use to show your support for the bill.
If you communicate support to your representative(s), please inform a CCAO staff member so we can assist NACo in tracking outreach.
Governor DeWine delivers final State of the State address
In his final State of the State address, Governor Mike DeWine kept his focus where it was for much of his two terms: safety and Ohio's children.
The speech touched on a variety of issues that the state has tackled over the past eight years and some it is still working on. These include:
- Minimizing screen time for children, partially through the cell phone ban in schools;
- Distracted driving laws;
- Seat belt enforcement;
- The science of reading;
- OhioSEE, to help children who need glasses get prescriptions;
- The importance of physical activity for children;
- AI regulations, particularly pertaining to AI-generated pornography and AI that encourage self-harm.
A copy of the Governor's prepared speech can be accessed here. A recording of the speech is available on the Ohio Channel.
SERB releases 2025 Wage Settlement Report
The State Employment Relations Board (SERB) released its 2025 Wage Settlement Report last week. The report covers labor contracts that started in 2025. The report shares key statistics about public labor contracts and can be useful to counties entering labor contract negotiations this year.
Report highlights include:
- The average three-year negotiated wage increase percentage for county labor contracts was 3.83% in 2025, 3.20% in 2026, and 3.03% in 2027.
- Safety services (fire and police) averaged the largest wage increases by bargaining unit type.
- Counties averaged the highest one-time lump sum amounts in negotiated contracts for 2025 at $1,280 in 2025, and then the lowest in 2026 and 2027, at $730 and $410, respectively.
- Thirty-two county contracts beginning in 2025 included lump sum amount while 141 included a wage percentage increase (18.5%).
You can view prior reports and other useful resources on SERB's website. Top America 250-Ohio to host webinar on marketing community events
Join America 250-Ohio for an informational webinar on how to work with the commission to effectively market and communicate your America 250 events and experiences.
The webinar will be held on Thursday, March 26, at 2:00 p.m. Registration is free and can be completed here.
Topics may include:
- Social media collaborations and amplification
- Logo use - the ins and outs of using the America 250-Ohio logo; examples of logo uses by partners; guidelines for working with the national America 250 brand
- Promotional partnerships - what they are and how they work
- America 250-Ohio merchandise - partners, guidelines and reviews
- How to share your events with the America 250-Ohio audiences - i.e. calendar of events, etc.
- How to share your materials with us and our audiences - i.e. blog posts, photos, education guides, etc.
- Who's who on the team and how to contact us to get help
- What's next for America 250-Ohio programs
- How you can help us
The session will be recorded to share with participants as well as those who cannot attend. CCAO will help distribute the recording in future editions of Counties Current.
We hope to see you there! Top Each week Counties Current highlights the happenings in our counties in the words of their local media.
One story from each of the CCAO's five districts is highlighted, and on occasion other stories may be highlighted as well.
Northwest District
County to demolish downtown building, replace leaking jail roof
Toledo Blade, March 10, 2026
Lucas County will demolish a building attached to the family court center for nearly $3.8 million and will replace a large portion of the jail’s roof for $1.3 million.
The contracts, approved at the commissioners’ meeting Tuesday, will set into motion two large capital projects for the county.
Commissioner Anita Lopez, however, voted against the jail roofing contract. She said the contractor’s previous work on the jail’s roof was faulty.
“The bottom line is, cheapest is not the best. You cannot always go by the bottom line,” she said. “I have concerns that it should have been the standard to have a vapor barrier.”
The lowest bidder, Overhead Roofing and Sheet Metal, previously completely replaced two roof sections in 2019 and 2020 which have began to separate and bubble up. One section was covered by the roofing manufacturer’s warranty, but the other was not.
Facilities manager Jeff Nowak said the manufacturer claims a design error is causing the bubbling. Moisture trapped in the concrete is evaporating and causing blisters, which the manufacturer says could have been prevented with a vapor barrier to seal it in.
The roof is not currently leaking, Mr. Nowak said, but eventually the roof may need to be cut into to diagnose the issue with more certainty.
Northeast District
Addressing the behavioral health crisis in youth
The Vindicator, March 10, 2026
The head of Mahoning County Children Services convened a roundtable discussion with the judge and magistrates of the county’s juvenile court, mental health and recovery board, county board of health, developmental disabilities and about six other organizations to talk about ways to better address the needs of “the most needy community children.”
The discussion was about the “increasing numbers of children with acute behavioral health needs, complex trauma histories, developmental disabilities and co-occurring conditions whose needs exceed the capacity of the current local service system.”
Mahoning CSB Executive Director Richard Tvaroch said in opening remarks he was talking about children with “profound, multiple … needs,” who in Tvaroch’s view are “not having their needs met.” He said it is becoming a “community health issue because we have children, and by extension, families struggling to maintain (and) get the services they need … and we need to figure out how to address these issues.”
Tvaroch was apparently intentionally vague at times because of privacy issues that prevent such a discussion from taking place completely in the open. But he spoke especially about 26 children who are Mahoning County residents who are the responsibility of Mahoning County CSB who are in residential care, meaning in facilities throughout Ohio and in several other states.
But the problem, he said, is that even though the cost of placing the 26 children is a collective $13,600 per day, Tvaroch is not so sure the 26 are “getting better.”
He said, “I would like to tell you that those 26 kids are all getting better. But I’m not going to lie to you. I don’t know that residential care is always the right approach for them. So we need to figure out how to get those children back in the community.”
Tvaroch said if the current cost of placing children in out of county residential care continues, “that will be roughly a quarter of the agency’s operating budget. I would gladly do that if I thought children were getting better, if I felt there was a clear pathway to get them home, but there is not. And it is why we so critically need to have these conversations because only by coordinating our efforts, can we see better outcomes for children we touch in all of our agencies.”
Central District
Commissioners provide community updates at Business Impact Meeting
Peak of Ohio, March 11, 2026
The Logan County Chamber of Commerce hosted its monthly Business Impact Meeting Wednesday morning at Mary Rutan Health, where the Logan County Board of Commissioners shared several updates on county operations, recovery efforts at Indian Lake, and concerns over a statewide push to eliminate property taxes.
Commission President Joe Antram announced that the Logan County Job and Family Services office will soon relocate.
The agency is currently located at 1 Hunter Place on the north side of Bellefontaine, but will be moving to the RTC Industries building at the intersection of State Route 47 and County Road 32.
Officials expect the move to be completed by May 1.
Commissioner Greg Fitzpatrick also noted that this weekend marks the anniversary of the Indian Lake Tornado that heavily impacted the Indian Lake region.
As part of the ongoing recovery discussions, the county is working with several local governments — including the villages of Lakeview and Russells Point, along with Richland Township, Stokes Township, and Washington Township — to apply for a $300,000 grant to conduct a feasibility study on bringing municipal water to areas around Indian Lake that currently rely on sanitary sewer service.
The effort is being coordinated with assistance from the Logan County Chamber of Commerce and the Logan-Union-Champaign Regional Planning Commission.
Fitzpatrick emphasized that the proposal is only a study, not a commitment to move forward with a water project.
“This is strictly to gather information and determine feasibility,” Fitzpatrick told attendees.
The grant would require a 20 percent local match, totaling $60,000.
Participating communities and partners have already pledged contributions that would cover the required match.
Fitzpatrick noted that after the 2024 tornado, a community recovery survey identified municipal water as one of the top priorities among residents.
Southwest District
MC Commissioners OK court office renovation proposal
Miami Valley Today, March 12, 2026
The Miami County Commissioners accepted a proposal for the renovation of the Miami County Probate Court and Miami County Prosecutor’s Office and authorized the disposal of unneeded, obsolete, or unfit property, which will be listed for online auction.
The commissioners accepted a proposal from Levin Porter Architects of Miamisburg and signed a professional design service agreement for the bid drawings for the expansion and renovation of the Probate Judge’s Clerk’s office, for the expansion and renovation of the Miami County Prosecutor’s Office, including a new lobby and related services.
The design services for the offices, described as part one, are not to exceed $14,525, and the design services, described as part two, are not to exceed $22,600, for a total cost not to exceed $37,125. The commissioners authorized contract negotiations with Levin Porter Architects on Feb. 10.
In other business, the commissioners authorized the Miami County Engineer to proceed with the sale of surplus/obsolete equipment and tools, to be sold by internet auction through GovDeals.com, in accordance with Ohio Revised Code (O.R.C.) Section 307.12 (E), including Trash pump, 1999 brush/wood chipper, three drafting tables, seven office desks and chairs, three filing cabinets, two solar lights and one 2005 GMC Canyon and Truck Cap, with 147,000 plus miles and in good condition. The auction will be held on the GovDeals.com website with a link to the auction available on the County website home page at www.miamicountyohio.gov.
The commissioners authorized and signed a release of mortgage for 1040 Caldwell St. in Piqua, at the request of the Miami County Department of Development (MCDOD). Miami County Board of Commissioners President Wade Westfall received approval to sign the listed Release of Mortgage, 15-year Direct Mortgage Loan under the County’s CHIP program.
The commissioners authorized the MCDOD to forward the release to the Miami County Recorder’s Office for recording for the property owner, Jeremy Sullenberger. The loan amount was $20,450 and was dated June 5, 2015. The mortgage now has a zero principal balance due to the Miami County Commissioners.
Southeast District
Commissioners approve magistrate court funding, Belpre America 250 sub-grant
Marietta Times, March 13, 2026
The Washington County Commission approved a resolution Thursday recognizing March as American Red Cross Month and handled several routine financial and administrative items during its regular meeting.
Commissioner Charlie Schilling said the resolution honoring the American Red Cross recognizes the organization’s role in supporting residents and communities throughout the region.
“It was our pleasure, obviously, to support the American Red Cross here locally,” Schilling said. “They support a lot of organizations and a lot of people in our communities, and we’re very appreciative of the volunteers that just work tirelessly with that organization.”
Commissioners also approved several additional appropriations, including $130,000 from the county general fund for a capital project to build out a new space for the magistrate court.
Two additional appropriations of $200,000 each were approved for behavioral health contract services. Schilling said those funds come directly from the agency’s levy funding.
The commission approved budget transfers related to the county’s budget stabilization fund and the opioid remediation grant.
Commissioners authorized a subrecipient agreement with the city of Belpre related to a state grant supporting the nation’s upcoming semiquincentennial celebration. Washington County received $22,000 from the state’s America 250 grant.
“$6,500 of that was granted to the city of Belpre for some projects they’re going to be doing down there in 2026 for the America 250 celebration,” Schilling said.
Additional items approved included travel for Children Services staff and Family and Children First council representatives, as well as the director of the Washington County 911 to attend a conference focused on improving emergency services.
Schilling said travel for Children Services typically includes meetings and visits related to children in the agency’s care. Top MARCH 20
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