August 3, 2026 • 16 mins
The Hamilton County Commission want to charge taxpayers a new levy. Commissioner Denise Driehaus joins Willie to discuss why this new tax is necessary.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
By Billy cunning in the Great American f at two
o'clock today, a live report from Oegar any possible Reds
trades that might be occurring, as you may know, the
trading deadline at six o'clock today, and I'm sure at
Denise tree House, head of the County Commissioners, keeping an
eye on that. Denise tree House, welcome again to the
Bill Cunningham Show. And first of all, Denise, I know
you have lots of free time. What are your thoughts
(00:29):
keeping Tyler Stevenson or not with the Reds. Do you
think are the Reds calling you for any vice on
the trade deadline?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Not yet, Willie, But I am a big fan of
the Reds, and so I trust their judgment. I do
love it. We're bringing the County Commissioners Association down here
to Cincinnati in a couple of weeks and we're taking
them all to the Reds game, and they could not
be more excited.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Great, let's talk about the Children's Services levy, which is
more Germaine to your Bailey Wicker. What was the vote
this morning and the County commissioner about the Children's services level?
What was of vote?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
So we voted to put a moderate increase on the
ballot thirty eight percent, down from the recommendation we got
from the Tax Leverty Review Committee, which was closer to
seventy five percent. But we recognize that people are struggling
with property taxes and we took it as low as
we could go and still sustain some support for children
(01:23):
in this community that you know, we're trying to keep safe.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
What services does the levee cover?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
So these are cost of care for kids coming into
our system. So it's kinship care, foster care, and those
are really important and a lot of the kids are
in those those kinds of settings. But what's costing us
the most by way of increases is this higher level
of care because the kids that are coming in have
more severe needs, They've got more severe trauma, and so
(01:51):
they cannot go into a foster care setting and be
safe and keep the rest of that family safe, and
so they need to go in this higher level of care.
It takes more people and it takes more resources to
do that, and so over the last since twenty twenty one,
we've seen a ninety percent increase in placement costs, and
(02:12):
so that's driving off the cost of the Levy.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
So Teddy in the last five years has been a
ninety percent increase.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Placement cost of increase more than ninety percent since twenty
twenty one. Why because of this cost of care that
I just talked about, Because the level of care has
to be higher and it costs more, and the providers
have the options because everybody's looking for this kind of care, like,
we're not the only ones in this situation, and so
(02:41):
they're getting calls from Butler County and Larren County in
Montgomery County to place kids, and so we're competing for
these placements and we want to keep these kids as
close to home as possible. So yeah, we're challenged to
find spots for our kids sometimes and it costs more
to do it.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
And Denise Treehouse, isn't this terrible timing. I look at
the school board tonight, I think is going to put
on the ballot a big property tax increase for cps.
They're likely to rescind their income tax proposal because the
Democrats and city council went crazy on that one, thinking Okay,
we're going to ask for an increase, call it a
safety levee, and in the next three or four months
(03:19):
we're going to increase. We want the voters in the
city to vote for a big increase on the income tax.
And so they were more or less told by the
Democrats on council have to have peer of all at all,
don't do that. So they're going to back down and say, Okay,
it's going to be a property tax increase. And so
this fall, the citizens are going to be asked to
grossly increase Children's Services levee and appears that that's a
(03:43):
fifty percent increase rising from one hundred and twenty one
dollars per one hundred thousand for four years, and a
big increase on that. There's going to be a big
increase on the school levee, both hitting in November. Isn't
this bad timing?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
So let me just say that for the taxpayers related
to the Children's Services levey, the increases thirty nine dollars
on a homeowner that has one hundred thousand dollars home
And I know that some metrics that we always use,
but that's what we've got. And so from my vantage point,
you know, the recommendation was quite a bit higher than
this to cover the costs. And so what we've had
(04:19):
to do here is go lower by way of property
taxes and find that funding somewhere else. And so the
administration has worked on that, and so we've got other
reserves that we're going to use to fill that gap.
So we have gone down significantly and what we're asking
the taxpayers for by way of property tax, and I
think that's important. But to your point, yeah, people are
(04:41):
strained by way of property tax. Remember I was on
that property tax committee. The governor appointed me a bipartisan
commission to look at this, and we made recommendations to
the state as to how they could provide some structural
relief but also some short term relief. They took up
the structural relief and that's that's fine, but they did
not to the short term release that we were asking
(05:02):
them to do. And so people are really struggling right
now to pay that increase in their property taxes.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
You have connections in Columbus. A legislator, et cetera. Alesha
Reese was also a legislator. Are you looking toward the
state government to pay more of these services for investigations
of CPS, foster care, adoption, family reunification, all that. Do
you want Columbus to pay more money for this program.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Well, well, let me put that in perspective for you.
And I'm not going to speak about the school because
they do they speak well for themselves. But by way
of children's services, we are the second last in the
country when it comes to the states funding children's services,
and a couple of years ago we were last, and
to double it, we'd still be last. And so Governor
de Wine, because this is a high priority for him,
(05:50):
put in more money. Not much, mind, you were still
second last in the country, but at least it was
a move in the right direction. But we're woefully underfunded
by the state should be a part in this. I mean,
these kids are our kids, all of our kids, and
they should be a partner like every other state in
the country, but they haven't done it, and so now
we're made up to make the difference here locally, and
(06:10):
it puts so much pressure on local taxpayers because the
state is not doing their part, and they're sitting on
the highest ever Rainy Day fund and they have some
capacity to help out here.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
I kind of know those men and women in Columbus
say they're very proud with having a Randy Day Fund
and no taxes as low taxes as possible. Viveg Ramaswami,
who is likely to be the next governor. Who knows
what might happen with Amy acting, but at least it's
close in the polls. But he wants to get rid
of the property taxes completely and also get rid of
(06:43):
the state income tax. So if you get ready, if
you get rid of the property taxes completely from and
also the state income tax, how do you raise money?
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Well, how do you provide services? I mean, you know
what does that mean? I mean, talk and talk to
the folks on the townships about that. I mean, we
have a reliance on taxes to pay for safety services,
sheriff deputies, nine to one, one call taker. I mean,
that's what that's what the taxes pay for. And so
if you're going to eliminate our ability to provide the resources,
(07:14):
I want to know what that needs. I mean, who
in the world's going to do that? And so that's
creates a huge hole. And let me just say Willie
that I hear that. That's one perspective. But we have
been working closely with the business community in Hamilton County
related to this levee and the Chamber of Commerce has
come out and endorsed the levee at the thirty eight
percent increase that I talked about. So we are doing
(07:37):
our work here to make sure that we've got a
coalition of individuals to support this. And so it's the
chamber and the business community, it's also the faith community
who held a press conference yesterday. We're talking to labor,
We're talking to everybody to make sure that people are
on board with this levee and they understand the need
and how low we have gone by way of what
(07:57):
we're asking taxpayers to do.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
You may know I have on alesha rees last week
and she said on the air and she wanted to know.
I'm sure you've heard this from her that why did
you vote to approve a new lease agreement with the
Bengals contributing three hundred and fifty million dollars for upgrades
to pay Corps when you knew the Children's Services Levy
was at risk. What's your answer to that?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Well, we're talking about completely different things. The sales tax.
Remember people voted for that sales tax back in the
day to build and maintain two stadiums on the riverfront.
And so we are you know, we have that fund
set aside for that purpose. The only fungible amount there,
by the way, if you look at the obligations in
(08:42):
what we've got there and what we've had to do
over the years is debt service maintenance on the building,
and we've got that pilot for the schools, which we
have to do. The part that's fungible that moves around
a little bit is the PTR, the property tax rebate,
and so we have always right to do as much
as we can there. It's not always been thirty percent
(09:03):
on the first to admit that because the numbers don't work,
I mean, it doesn't pencil out, and so it's not
as if we've got a lot of money sitting around
in that fund. And if we were to take it
from the PPR, that's property tax relief for property tax payers, right.
So it's a little confusing for me to think about
it in those terms because we're talking about the Children's
(09:23):
Services Levey, which relies on property tax. But we're looking
at other ways to fill in that gap through our
reserves through some of the interest earnings. So you know,
we're being creative here. We've never done this before. That
Children's Services is funded through property taxes in our county
and every other county in the state. And so now
we're all because of all these pressures, we're having to
(09:46):
look at creative ways to fund it. And that's what
we've done.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Alisia Ree said, takes some take ten percent of the
sales tax for the obligation, and she said, we're not
doing that. Why can't you take ten percent of the
sales tax revenue to fund children's services?
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Levy, The money is obligated to other things related to
the sales tax, So you can't not pay debt service.
You can't say to your the debt service, you know,
the people that have bought that day, oh yeah, we're
not going to pay you. What do you think that
does to our credit rating? I mean that we can't
do that. We can't renig on the obligations that we have,
(10:23):
and so we have no choice but to look for
the resources that are available to us, that have always
been available to us to fund children's services. And this
community has always stepped up when it comes to children's services.
And so once again I understand. I mean, we're all
out in the community, we're all talking to people, and
(10:43):
we had three public hearings on this, and we heard
a lot about people talking to us about the needs
in the community. They want us to support the Children's
Services levy. They supported the increase in it. We had
a couple people come in and talked about the pressure
on property tax, which I understand, I hear, and so
what the equation for me was, how do we do
(11:04):
as much as we can to stabilize this fund and
go as low as we can go for the taxpayers.
And that's where we arrived at. Its thirty eight percent.
So it's thirty nine dollars, as I said, per year
for one hundred thousand dollars home.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
I had on your fellow commissioner at David Young and
Warren County and I went over some of the things
I paid for in my property tax bill, which all
Hamlet County residents pay for, and he said, we pay
for most of those out of general revenue of the
county without having to have special levies. And I said, well,
the reason is you don't have pay corps and you
(11:37):
don't have the Great American Ballpark. You don't have those issues.
Say yeah, well we got the tennis tournament and that's
a net positive because of the sales tax that we use.
We have all these other services we provide in Warren County,
but we don't go to the taxpayer to pay for it,
specifically because we have enough money from the sales tax
to pay for everything. What's your response to that.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Well, if you look at the chart on our sales
tax income for Hamilton County, it is and I have
a chart. Hold on, I'm going to go grab the
piece of paper because I have this chart. We're very
low when it comes to what we're relying on by
way of sales tax. So which county were you talking about,
Warren County, Warren County, Tennis, Arn Warren is out. Warren
(12:21):
County has a higher sales tax than we do in
Hamilton County. Now I'm not talking about the dollar amount,
but rather the percentage. And so we are doing less
for our general fund by way of sales tax than
other counties and we are like the lowest in the state.
It's really something because we've got these pressures. Don't forget
(12:41):
about SORTA and I you know, look, I support all
these things, but that also puts pressure on the sales tax,
and so we have to rely on different funding sources.
And Willie, let's just say that when I arrived at
the County Commission, all seven levies existed and they rely
on property tax So it's not like I set this up.
This is the first time ever we have said we
(13:04):
can't just rely on property taxes for children's services. We've
got to look at other funding sources. And that's what
you're saying, and that's what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
When I look at my property tax bill from Jill Schiller,
I see that as a homeowner, I pay for the
Zoo Senior Services, Children's Services, Crime Information Center, which is
nine to one one, the Park District, Developmental Disabilities, mental
Health levee, the Health Hospital Care Indigent levy, the Family
(13:36):
Services Treatment levee, the Public Library levy, the General Fund
of the county which is you, the Joint Vocational School levee,
the township. I had them all up. It's a huge number,
and the number one expense is Children's services, other than
of course the school districts, which is Indian Hill, and
also the township gets a little piece of that, Tom Weedman.
(13:59):
But the most expensive of these ten or eleven for
all taxpayers in Almony County is Children's Services levy. How
many kids are how many kids are served by that?
Do you have any idea each year? Is that a bunch?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
So it's at thirteen thousand, I believe thirteen thousand, and
I will I will, Yeah, it's a lot of kids.
We've got over twenty two hundred kids in our care
right now.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Willie.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Let me just say, let me convey a story to you,
and I'm going to get back to the pie chart
that you just referred to. Let me just talk about something.
So on a recent Friday afternoon, we had a call
at Children's Services. Fourteen kids came into our care that afternoon,
fourteen kids from this community, and so we had to
(14:44):
place those fourteen kids. Are caseworkers. They spent all day,
they were well into the evening trying to make sure
that they could place those kids and not have them
sleeping in our offices over the weekend, which has happened before.
That's what we're talking about in the needs of these
kids is so much higher than they used to be.
Back when we were kids, we didn't have the trauma
(15:06):
that we're seeing in these kids right now. They're abused,
they're neglected, it's terrible and we just saw play out
in Finton County, So you need to look no further
to Minton County to try to get to understand what
we're talking about here. And so that's that's the reason
we've got so many kids coming into care. Children in
care have increased nineteen percent since twenty twenty one, so
(15:27):
that plays into the equation as well. But let's get
back to your pie chart and talk about where your
taxes are going. Because the property taxes, you are correct,
depending on where you live. The municipality is getting a
lot of that share, the schools are getting a lot
of that share, or you know, depending on where you live.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Right.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
So, but if you look at that pie chart and
you look at those slivers of levees, children's services is
one of the biggest levees for Hamilton County because the
need is so much higher. And the zoo is a
very small levee, and some of us are tiny, but
this one's the larger because of the need in the
community for it, and this community has said yes to
providing that kind of care for kids. So you know,
(16:09):
and as you know, the libraries and the parks are
not under our control. We control seven of those levees,
and those levees were set up, and the voters have
voted for those levees in the past to provide those services.
And you're right, it's people with disabilities, it's children, it's seniors,
it's mental health. Those are the kinds of things we're
(16:30):
talking about.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
All right, We got to run. Thanks for reporting this
to the American people. And thirteen thousand kids need help,
and it's said, we live in a society where so
many adults are irresponsible when it comes to children. Denise
tree House, thanks for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. Denise,
you are a great American and thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Thanks for your time.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Willie, God bless you. Let's continue with more. There's the
answers from Denise tree House on news Radio seven hundred Wow.
By Billy cunning in the Great American f at two
o'clock today, a live report from Oegar any possible Reds
trades that might be occurring, as you may know, the
trading deadline at six o'clock today, and I'm sure at
Denise tree House, head of the County Commissioners, keeping an
eye on that. Denise tree House, welcome again to the
Bill Cunningham Show. And first of all, Denise, I know
you have lots of free time. What are your thoughts
(00:29):
keeping Tyler Stevenson or not with the Reds. Do you
think are the Reds calling you for any vice on
the trade deadline?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Not yet, Willie, But I am a big fan of
the Reds, and so I trust their judgment. I do
love it. We're bringing the County Commissioners Association down here
to Cincinnati in a couple of weeks and we're taking
them all to the Reds game, and they could not
be more excited.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Great, let's talk about the Children's Services levy, which is
more Germaine to your Bailey Wicker. What was the vote
this morning and the County commissioner about the Children's services level?
What was of vote?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
So we voted to put a moderate increase on the
ballot thirty eight percent, down from the recommendation we got
from the Tax Leverty Review Committee, which was closer to
seventy five percent. But we recognize that people are struggling
with property taxes and we took it as low as
we could go and still sustain some support for children
(01:23):
in this community that you know, we're trying to keep safe.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
What services does the levee cover?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
So these are cost of care for kids coming into
our system. So it's kinship care, foster care, and those
are really important and a lot of the kids are
in those those kinds of settings. But what's costing us
the most by way of increases is this higher level
of care because the kids that are coming in have
more severe needs, They've got more severe trauma, and so
(01:51):
they cannot go into a foster care setting and be
safe and keep the rest of that family safe, and
so they need to go in this higher level of care.
It takes more people and it takes more resources to
do that, and so over the last since twenty twenty one,
we've seen a ninety percent increase in placement costs, and
(02:12):
so that's driving off the cost of the Levy.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
So Teddy in the last five years has been a
ninety percent increase.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Placement cost of increase more than ninety percent since twenty
twenty one. Why because of this cost of care that
I just talked about, Because the level of care has
to be higher and it costs more, and the providers
have the options because everybody's looking for this kind of care, like,
we're not the only ones in this situation, and so
(02:41):
they're getting calls from Butler County and Larren County in
Montgomery County to place kids, and so we're competing for
these placements and we want to keep these kids as
close to home as possible. So yeah, we're challenged to
find spots for our kids sometimes and it costs more
to do it.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
And Denise Treehouse, isn't this terrible timing. I look at
the school board tonight, I think is going to put
on the ballot a big property tax increase for cps.
They're likely to rescind their income tax proposal because the
Democrats and city council went crazy on that one, thinking Okay,
we're going to ask for an increase, call it a
safety levee, and in the next three or four months
(03:19):
we're going to increase. We want the voters in the
city to vote for a big increase on the income tax.
And so they were more or less told by the
Democrats on council have to have peer of all at all,
don't do that. So they're going to back down and say, Okay,
it's going to be a property tax increase. And so
this fall, the citizens are going to be asked to
grossly increase Children's Services levee and appears that that's a
(03:43):
fifty percent increase rising from one hundred and twenty one
dollars per one hundred thousand for four years, and a
big increase on that. There's going to be a big
increase on the school levee, both hitting in November. Isn't
this bad timing?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
So let me just say that for the taxpayers related
to the Children's Services levey, the increases thirty nine dollars
on a homeowner that has one hundred thousand dollars home
And I know that some metrics that we always use,
but that's what we've got. And so from my vantage point,
you know, the recommendation was quite a bit higher than
this to cover the costs. And so what we've had
(04:19):
to do here is go lower by way of property
taxes and find that funding somewhere else. And so the
administration has worked on that, and so we've got other
reserves that we're going to use to fill that gap.
So we have gone down significantly and what we're asking
the taxpayers for by way of property tax, and I
think that's important. But to your point, yeah, people are
(04:41):
strained by way of property tax. Remember I was on
that property tax committee. The governor appointed me a bipartisan
commission to look at this, and we made recommendations to
the state as to how they could provide some structural
relief but also some short term relief. They took up
the structural relief and that's that's fine, but they did
not to the short term release that we were asking
(05:02):
them to do. And so people are really struggling right
now to pay that increase in their property taxes.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
You have connections in Columbus. A legislator, et cetera. Alesha
Reese was also a legislator. Are you looking toward the
state government to pay more of these services for investigations
of CPS, foster care, adoption, family reunification, all that. Do
you want Columbus to pay more money for this program.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Well, well, let me put that in perspective for you.
And I'm not going to speak about the school because
they do they speak well for themselves. But by way
of children's services, we are the second last in the
country when it comes to the states funding children's services,
and a couple of years ago we were last, and
to double it, we'd still be last. And so Governor
de Wine, because this is a high priority for him,
(05:50):
put in more money. Not much, mind, you were still
second last in the country, but at least it was
a move in the right direction. But we're woefully underfunded
by the state should be a part in this. I mean,
these kids are our kids, all of our kids, and
they should be a partner like every other state in
the country, but they haven't done it, and so now
we're made up to make the difference here locally, and
(06:10):
it puts so much pressure on local taxpayers because the
state is not doing their part, and they're sitting on
the highest ever Rainy Day fund and they have some
capacity to help out here.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
I kind of know those men and women in Columbus
say they're very proud with having a Randy Day Fund
and no taxes as low taxes as possible. Viveg Ramaswami,
who is likely to be the next governor. Who knows
what might happen with Amy acting, but at least it's
close in the polls. But he wants to get rid
of the property taxes completely and also get rid of
(06:43):
the state income tax. So if you get ready, if
you get rid of the property taxes completely from and
also the state income tax, how do you raise money?
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Well, how do you provide services? I mean, you know
what does that mean? I mean, talk and talk to
the folks on the townships about that. I mean, we
have a reliance on taxes to pay for safety services,
sheriff deputies, nine to one, one call taker. I mean,
that's what that's what the taxes pay for. And so
if you're going to eliminate our ability to provide the resources,
(07:14):
I want to know what that needs. I mean, who
in the world's going to do that? And so that's
creates a huge hole. And let me just say Willie
that I hear that. That's one perspective. But we have
been working closely with the business community in Hamilton County
related to this levee and the Chamber of Commerce has
come out and endorsed the levee at the thirty eight
percent increase that I talked about. So we are doing
(07:37):
our work here to make sure that we've got a
coalition of individuals to support this. And so it's the
chamber and the business community, it's also the faith community
who held a press conference yesterday. We're talking to labor,
We're talking to everybody to make sure that people are
on board with this levee and they understand the need
and how low we have gone by way of what
(07:57):
we're asking taxpayers to do.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
You may know I have on alesha rees last week
and she said on the air and she wanted to know.
I'm sure you've heard this from her that why did
you vote to approve a new lease agreement with the
Bengals contributing three hundred and fifty million dollars for upgrades
to pay Corps when you knew the Children's Services Levy
was at risk. What's your answer to that?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Well, we're talking about completely different things. The sales tax.
Remember people voted for that sales tax back in the
day to build and maintain two stadiums on the riverfront.
And so we are you know, we have that fund
set aside for that purpose. The only fungible amount there,
by the way, if you look at the obligations in
(08:42):
what we've got there and what we've had to do
over the years is debt service maintenance on the building,
and we've got that pilot for the schools, which we
have to do. The part that's fungible that moves around
a little bit is the PTR, the property tax rebate,
and so we have always right to do as much
as we can there. It's not always been thirty percent
(09:03):
on the first to admit that because the numbers don't work,
I mean, it doesn't pencil out, and so it's not
as if we've got a lot of money sitting around
in that fund. And if we were to take it
from the PPR, that's property tax relief for property tax payers, right.
So it's a little confusing for me to think about
it in those terms because we're talking about the Children's
(09:23):
Services Levey, which relies on property tax. But we're looking
at other ways to fill in that gap through our
reserves through some of the interest earnings. So you know,
we're being creative here. We've never done this before. That
Children's Services is funded through property taxes in our county
and every other county in the state. And so now
we're all because of all these pressures, we're having to
(09:46):
look at creative ways to fund it. And that's what
we've done.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Alisia Ree said, takes some take ten percent of the
sales tax for the obligation, and she said, we're not
doing that. Why can't you take ten percent of the
sales tax revenue to fund children's services?
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Levy, The money is obligated to other things related to
the sales tax, So you can't not pay debt service.
You can't say to your the debt service, you know,
the people that have bought that day, oh yeah, we're
not going to pay you. What do you think that
does to our credit rating? I mean that we can't
do that. We can't renig on the obligations that we have,
(10:23):
and so we have no choice but to look for
the resources that are available to us, that have always
been available to us to fund children's services. And this
community has always stepped up when it comes to children's services.
And so once again I understand. I mean, we're all
out in the community, we're all talking to people, and
(10:43):
we had three public hearings on this, and we heard
a lot about people talking to us about the needs
in the community. They want us to support the Children's
Services levy. They supported the increase in it. We had
a couple people come in and talked about the pressure
on property tax, which I understand, I hear, and so
what the equation for me was, how do we do
(11:04):
as much as we can to stabilize this fund and
go as low as we can go for the taxpayers.
And that's where we arrived at. Its thirty eight percent.
So it's thirty nine dollars, as I said, per year
for one hundred thousand dollars home.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
I had on your fellow commissioner at David Young and
Warren County and I went over some of the things
I paid for in my property tax bill, which all
Hamlet County residents pay for, and he said, we pay
for most of those out of general revenue of the
county without having to have special levies. And I said, well,
the reason is you don't have pay corps and you
(11:37):
don't have the Great American Ballpark. You don't have those issues.
Say yeah, well we got the tennis tournament and that's
a net positive because of the sales tax that we use.
We have all these other services we provide in Warren County,
but we don't go to the taxpayer to pay for it,
specifically because we have enough money from the sales tax
to pay for everything. What's your response to that.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Well, if you look at the chart on our sales
tax income for Hamilton County, it is and I have
a chart. Hold on, I'm going to go grab the
piece of paper because I have this chart. We're very
low when it comes to what we're relying on by
way of sales tax. So which county were you talking about,
Warren County, Warren County, Tennis, Arn Warren is out. Warren
(12:21):
County has a higher sales tax than we do in
Hamilton County. Now I'm not talking about the dollar amount,
but rather the percentage. And so we are doing less
for our general fund by way of sales tax than
other counties and we are like the lowest in the state.
It's really something because we've got these pressures. Don't forget
(12:41):
about SORTA and I you know, look, I support all
these things, but that also puts pressure on the sales tax,
and so we have to rely on different funding sources.
And Willie, let's just say that when I arrived at
the County Commission, all seven levies existed and they rely
on property tax So it's not like I set this up.
This is the first time ever we have said we
(13:04):
can't just rely on property taxes for children's services. We've
got to look at other funding sources. And that's what
you're saying, and that's what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
When I look at my property tax bill from Jill Schiller,
I see that as a homeowner, I pay for the
Zoo Senior Services, Children's Services, Crime Information Center, which is
nine to one one, the Park District, Developmental Disabilities, mental
Health levee, the Health Hospital Care Indigent levy, the Family
(13:36):
Services Treatment levee, the Public Library levy, the General Fund
of the county which is you, the Joint Vocational School levee,
the township. I had them all up. It's a huge number,
and the number one expense is Children's services, other than
of course the school districts, which is Indian Hill, and
also the township gets a little piece of that, Tom Weedman.
(13:59):
But the most expensive of these ten or eleven for
all taxpayers in Almony County is Children's Services levy. How
many kids are how many kids are served by that?
Do you have any idea each year? Is that a bunch?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
So it's at thirteen thousand, I believe thirteen thousand, and
I will I will, Yeah, it's a lot of kids.
We've got over twenty two hundred kids in our care
right now.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Willie.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Let me just say, let me convey a story to you,
and I'm going to get back to the pie chart
that you just referred to. Let me just talk about something.
So on a recent Friday afternoon, we had a call
at Children's Services. Fourteen kids came into our care that afternoon,
fourteen kids from this community, and so we had to
(14:44):
place those fourteen kids. Are caseworkers. They spent all day,
they were well into the evening trying to make sure
that they could place those kids and not have them
sleeping in our offices over the weekend, which has happened before.
That's what we're talking about in the needs of these
kids is so much higher than they used to be.
Back when we were kids, we didn't have the trauma
(15:06):
that we're seeing in these kids right now. They're abused,
they're neglected, it's terrible and we just saw play out
in Finton County, So you need to look no further
to Minton County to try to get to understand what
we're talking about here. And so that's that's the reason
we've got so many kids coming into care. Children in
care have increased nineteen percent since twenty twenty one, so
(15:27):
that plays into the equation as well. But let's get
back to your pie chart and talk about where your
taxes are going. Because the property taxes, you are correct,
depending on where you live. The municipality is getting a
lot of that share, the schools are getting a lot
of that share, or you know, depending on where you live.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Right.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
So, but if you look at that pie chart and
you look at those slivers of levees, children's services is
one of the biggest levees for Hamilton County because the
need is so much higher. And the zoo is a
very small levee, and some of us are tiny, but
this one's the larger because of the need in the
community for it, and this community has said yes to
providing that kind of care for kids. So you know,
(16:09):
and as you know, the libraries and the parks are
not under our control. We control seven of those levees,
and those levees were set up, and the voters have
voted for those levees in the past to provide those services.
And you're right, it's people with disabilities, it's children, it's seniors,
it's mental health. Those are the kinds of things we're
(16:30):
talking about.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
All right, We got to run. Thanks for reporting this
to the American people. And thirteen thousand kids need help,
and it's said, we live in a society where so
many adults are irresponsible when it comes to children. Denise
tree House, thanks for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. Denise,
you are a great American and thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Thanks for your time.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Willie, God bless you. Let's continue with more. There's the
answers from Denise tree House on news Radio seven hundred Wow.
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