Letter to Editor: Support Critical Developmental Disabilities Levy

Friends, Neighbors, & Local Leaders,

We are closing in on the final week of the election. As we’ve been advocating for Fairfield County Board of Developmental Disabilities (DD) and sharing the message of this critical levy renewal, it’s been a productive experience conversing with community members across the county, including many of you movers and shakers.

This 1.85-mill property tax renewal maintains support for services to individuals with developmental disabilities and operations at Forest Rose School and will not increase your taxes one penny.

A renewal of this levy, which was initially passed in 2015, now beckons for another era of support to ensure all ages that live with intellectual and developmental disabilities are welcomed, encouraged, and nurtured where they live, learn, work, and play.

Without your shared vision and collaboration in this common purpose to move as one team, individuals would merely survive – not thrive. It takes all of us working together to sustain this mission of greater independence and empowerment for this population.

Your partnership through levy dollars helps provide Fairfield DD with the necessary means to fill service gaps for individuals from birth to adulthood. The renewal is critical to conserve these efforts at a minimum, while strategizing new ways to move as one: one mission, one team, one community. The levy raises one-third, or about $7.38 million of the $22 million operating costs for Fairfield County Board of DD. As you consider your vote for May 6, we ask that you also consider how this levy ties to the betterment of 2,000 lives that Fairfield DD serves annually. You may be one person, but your ‘yes’ vote affects generations of change in this community.