The petition ballot initiative proposed by the Platte County 4 Kids Coalition will appear on the November election ballot.
The Platte County Circuit Court last week ordered the Platte County Board of Elections to place the proposed children’s tax on the Nov. 5 ballot.
On Friday, Aug. 23, Circuit Court Judge Megan Benton granted Platte County 4 Kids and Greg Plumb, treasurer of the organization, a writ of mandamus, ordering Board of Elections Commissioners Chris Hershey and Wendy Flanigan to place the following question on the ballot:
“Shall Platte County, solely for the purposes of establishing a community children’s services fund for the purpose of providing services to protect the well-being and safety of children and youth 19 years of age or less and to strengthen families, be authorized to levy a sales tax of one-quarter of one cent in Platte County.”
The petition for the writ was first filed Aug. 9 and named Flanigan and Hershey, as well as the Platte County Commission, via its attorney Rob Redman. In it, Platte County 4 Kids stated it had collected more than the required 4,571 signatures – eight percent of qualified Platte County voters – to place a measure on the ballot. The Board of Elections approved 5,366 eligible signatures on the ballot initiative petition.
In late June, Platte County 4 Kids submitted this ballot petition to the Platte County Clerk for approval by the Platte County Commission, after which the Board of Elections would place it on the November ballot, prior to the Aug. 27 deadline.
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.
According to court documents, the Board of Elections believed the Platte County Commission must approve the petition before it could be placed on the ballot. However, according to state law, once the threshold of signatures is reached it is the responsibility of the Board of Elections to place the petition initiative on the ballot. In return, the Platte County Commission believed they did not have the authority to approve the petition.
Judge Benton agreed that the Board of Elections is responsible and ordered the petition initiative to be placed on the November ballot.
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 – with more than 5,000 of them later approved – to the Platte County Clerk’s Office on Monday, June 24 to place a quarter-cent sales tax initiative on the Nov. 5 ballot. The signature delivery was the culmination of a multi-organizational effort to create a Children’s Services Fund in Platte County.
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 to 24-year-olds in Missouri.
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 provided over $15.8 million in funding towards 10 service areas, benefiting over 52,000 children.