MIDDLETOWN — Voters will decide in November if the Middletown Area Senior Citizens should receive taxpayers’ money to pay down the multimillion dollar mortgage on its senior center.

City Council agreed in a 5-0-1 vote Tuesday night — Councilman A.J. Smith voted to abstain — to place a five-year, 1-mill property tax levy on the November election ballot that will cost the owner of a $100,000 home $30.63 a year. It would generate more than $781,400 a year.

It’s now up to the 59-year-old organization to convince voters the senior center is crucial to the community, said center executive director Ann Munafo. If the group fails, then the worst-case scenario, is the center closes.

“Now the hard works starts,” Munafo said.

Smith voted to abstain because of a potential conflict of interest, but did not elaborate on the potential conflict.

Councilman Josh Laubach, who was not at Tuesday night’s meeting due to a death in his family, had voted previously against placing the senior citizens levy on the ballot.

Two weeks ago, Laubach said City Council needs “to be very careful” about asking for additional taxes on the ballot because “I think there’s going to be a time ... where the city may need additional taxes just to survive.”

Munafo said not a lot has been done on a potential campaign, or organizing a campaign committee, “because we wanted to make sure we were able to get through this first critical step.”

She said the Middletown Area Senior Citizens won’t start campaigning until after the Aug. 7 special election. On the special election ballot, the city has a 0.25 percent income tax public safety levy request. The current levy expires in December and the current request.

Since August 2011, when Munafo was hired, more than $100,000 has been cut from the senior center’s annual budget and she has worked to increase the center’s funding with revenue-generators such as banquet facility rentals. But that hasn’t been enough, she said, to pay down the mortgage and keep up with the center’s other expenses.

Middletown Area Senior Citizens owes $3.6 million on the building, which is valued at $2.7 million. The organization cannot refinance until the balance of the mortgage is under the value of the building.

The organization has been in a “financial crisis” since it opened in 2007, said Munafo. She said the center will be a need over the next two decades as the city’s “baby boomers,” which first turned 65 years old last year, make up 42 percent of the city’s population. More than 7,200 boomers are at least 65 years old.

“Our biggest campaign is going to be trying to show people all we do right now,” Munafo said. “We still think a lot of folks don’t really know what services we provide and aren’t familiar with all the things that we do in this community already. We want to show value as to why we should remain and continue our services.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2175 or michael.pitman@coxinc.com. Follow at twitter.com/mdpitman.