County Commissioners this week shot down a proposal from two mental health service providers to create a sales tax to fund children’s mental health services in Platte County.
At the Monday, April 1 commission administrative session, Dennis Meier, associate executive director at Synergy Services, and Tom Patrizzo, CEO of Beacon Mental Health, formerly Tri-County Mental Health Services, spoke to commissioners to urge them to place a special quarter-cent sales tax on the November ballot.
Meier said the sales tax would generate $4 million per year to be used for mental health services for children and youth age 19 and under. Funds would be administered by an eight-member board appointed by the commission. The proponents of the tax said they were prepared to seek placement of the measure on the ballot through a petition initiative, should commissioners say no.
“The need for this fund is clearly demonstrated in study after study,” Meier said, particularly in the post-pandemic era. In Platte County, he said the ratio of providers is 840 clients to one service provider – more than twice the state average.
“It makes perfect sense for a county of our ability to provide these funds so folks don’t need to leave the county to get their needs met,” Meier said.
Patrizzo pointed to Clay County, where a children’s mental health fund was approved by voters in 2018.
“Three things are quite different now than in 2018,” Patrizzo said. The pandemic exacerbated mental health problems already existing, particularly in younger people. Also, social media bullying has escalated and young people are suffering through increased rates of self-harm and more reports of depression and loneliness. Third, is the increased availability of fentanyl in the community.
He said by the data he’s seeing, Platte County is at a “red flag warning” for the state of youth mental health.
“We need to take the initiative to pass the children’s fund not just for treatment but also prevention,” Patrizzo said. “That’s what’s happening in Clay County right now.”
Presiding Commissioner Scott Fricker said he did not support placing another new tax on the ballot.
Fricker said he supports taxes that benefit everyone in the county and that the county would soon need to place a law enforcement tax on the ballot to fund expansion of the Platte County Detention Center.
“There are many people in this county who are facing their own red-flag warnings, financially,” Fricker said, stating inflation was high, housing prices were high and people were already struggling to pay their bills.
He said the cause is just, but it is not the cause of every citizen in Platte County and that services should be paid for through private donors.
Meier told the commission the tax would be a sales tax and not a property tax, and so would be paid by people visiting Platte County as well.
“I’m not concerned by the people who come in and contribute to it, I’m concerned by the people who live here and would be forced to pay it,” Fricker said.
Patrizzo said Beacon Mental Health is a provider much like the fire department that responds to mental health emergencies.
Meier said those who can’t get mental health services put a burden on emergency services, which costs far more than regular patient services when those are available.
“This is the universal health debate and I don’t support that either,” Fricker said.
He said the services offered by Synergy and Beacon are of a benefit to a few, but a new tax would strain Platte County residents on a fixed income or those with financial difficulties.
“There are many people of substantial resource in this county that support that, ask them for the money,” Fricker said.
District Commissioner Darmar Wood said she didn’t think Synergy and Beacon would have any trouble getting the signatures required to place the tax proposal on the November ballot.
“It is dangerous to trust a committee of unelected government officials with spending millions of tax dollars and making decisions about what our children need for their mental health,” said district commissioner Joe Vanover.