Voters get say on senior center

When Lincoln County voters go to the polls Tuesday they will be voting on a ballot issue that has received very little attention during this cycle: the Lincoln County Senior Citizens’ Mill Levy.

The three senior citizens’ centers in the county – in Troy, Libby and Eureka – currently receive 1.25 mills annually from property taxes. That equates to roughly $45,000 according to Ron Higgins, president of the Lincoln County Council on Aging, the group who manages the three centers.

The centers receive their primary funding from the state and federal governments, with the mill levy being used to cover additional operating expenses such as utilities and wages for employees. When the initial levy was granted in 2000 it was barely enough to cover expenses, said Higgins. Over the past 14 years, however, the gap between operating expenses and revenue has increased, putting additional pressure on the centers and the council to resort to private fundraising in order to maintain the centers and their programs.

The centers currently provide a number of programs and services to senior residents in Lincoln County. They provide meals, both in the centers and through a meal-delivery program. They also have a homemaker program with which center staff assists elderly patrons who require help with tasks at home. They also provide health screenings, social events and activities, and meeting space for a number of community groups.

Higgins said the community’s response to the levy request to date has been very positive.

“It’s really a minimal amount,” Higgins said of the requested mill increase. 

According to the ballot information, the 1.25 mill increase will translate into an annual cost of 82 cents for an assessed value of $50,000, $1.64 for $100,000 and $3.27 for a property assessed at $200,000.

Higgins is hopeful that the measure will pass on Tuesday, but expressed some concern that voters are just not aware of what the ballot issue means. He mentioned that most voters tend to react negatively, out of instinct, to anything that results in increased taxes but that he had received positive feedback from the community groups with whom he’d spoken about the issue.

His biggest fear, he said, is “that we didn’t get out enough information” before the election.