The Platte County Commission has postponed its decision on a pass-through measure aimed at getting a county-wide children’s fund on the November election ballot.
Last week, the Platte County 4 Kids Coalition submitted more than 8,000 signatures to the Platte County Clerk’s office. The petition ballot initiative is required to be passed through a taxing jurisdiction before it is sent on to the Platte County Board of Elections for certification and placement on the Nov. 8 election ballot.
On Monday, July 1, Platte County Commissioners stated they needed to check with the county attorney before approving the petition ballot initiative and allowing it to move to the Board of Elections.
“We don’t know what our obligations are as a commission with regards to this issue,” said Presiding Commissioner Scott Fricker. “This showed up on our agenda mid-week and we didn’t know it was coming. We haven’t had time to discuss this with our counsel and we still don’t know what our obligations, responsibilities and rights are on this issue.”
In April, commissioners shot down a proposal from Synergy Services and Beacon Mental Health, formerly Tri-County Mental Health Services, to place a quarter-cent children’s mental health sales tax on the November ballot. At that time, District Commissioner Dagmar Wood said the coalition should have no trouble getting the signatures required to place the tax proposal on the November ballot.
The organizers did just that.
The Platte County 4 Kids Coalition submitted approximately 8,400 signatures to the Platte County Clerk’s Office on Monday, June 24 to place a quarter-cent sales tax initiative on the Nov. 8 ballot. The signature delivery was the culmination of a multi-organizational effort to create a Children’s Services Fund in Platte County.
“This effort is truly the result of concerned community members coming together to help children,” said Tom Petrizzo, CEO of Beacon Mental Health, in a release issued last week. “We’ve seen overwhelming positivity when it comes to the community response to this initiative. Many community members feel that young people are growing up in a unique environment with its own challenges, and they need more support, education and prevention.”
According to Platte County 4 Kids, establishing a Children’s Services Fund in Platte County would expand mental health and suicide prevention services for tens of thousands of children and teens in Platte County. The 2022 Missouri Student Survey revealed that nearly 9% of participating Platte County students had seriously considered suicide, with suicide being the second leading cause of death among 10-24-year-olds in Missouri.
“This fund would help providers in the county become more proactive than reactive when it comes to supporting children,” Petrizzo said. “There would be a great benefit to students and schools themselves if the fund passed because parts of the funds collected would be used to support school-based therapy, treatment for mental health, and prevention services (suicide, smoking, vaping, etc).”
The effort has been spearheaded by area nonprofits such as Beacon Mental Health and Synergy Services, with the support of over a dozen nonprofit and for-profit businesses in the area, as well as Platte County school districts and the Northland Regional Chamber. Along with expanding access to mental health services, the fund would create jobs, bringing talented providers to the county where the current patient-to-provider ratio is 840 to 1, making Platte County a mental health professional shortage area.
Similar tax initiatives have passed in the neighboring counties of Jackson and Clay with overwhelming success. In 2023, the Children’s Services Fund of Jackson County the fund provided over $15.8 million in funding towards 10 service areas, benefiting over 52,000 children.