The Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities has declared the agency is in a state of fiscal emergency and says it needs to ask voters to approve its first funding increase in 21 years.

The agency says its financial obligations will exceed revenues by the first quarter of 2027 and it's projecting $13.3 million in deficit spending in 2026.

"In 2004, we had 250 people receiving waiver supports," Patricia Dawson, public relations coordinator, tells WVXU. "By 2024, that number had jumped to (over) 1,200."

"Waiver supports" means providing mandated services to individuals with waivers from the federal government. These are services like transportation and in-home care, which the agency is required by law to provide.

The overall number of people the agency serves also has increased

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