KC metro mental health groups looking to create Platte County Children’s Fund
PLATTE CITY, Mo. — A proposed sales tax in Platte County could raise about $5 million every year for mental health services if voters approve it.
The long process of getting that question on the November ballot just started, spearheaded by two mental health organizations because the Platte County Board of Commissioners has already said it’s against the tax.
Synergy Services and Beacon Mental Health have already started the signature-gathering process. The 1/4 cent sales tax would fund the Platte County Children’s Fund, raising about $5 million every year.
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Mental health organizations could then apply for grants from that pot of money to be awarded by a board that would be appointed by the Platte County Commissioners.
“The waitlists were extraordinarily long, the turn-away numbers were very high, the cost of services were unaffordable for a lot of people,” Synergy Services Co-Executive Director Dennis Meier said.
That’s why Meier and Beacon Mental Health CEO Tom Petrizzo are working together to set up a similar fund like they already have in Clay and Jackson Counties.
The Jackson County Children’s Services Fund was created in 2016 and its Clay County companion passed a year later, providing what Meier and Petrizzo say are a long list of mental health services for people younger than 19 years old. Early invervention and preventative care, they claim, ultimately makes that care cheaper.
“Because then those children aren’t going to an emergency room, they’re not going to an in-patient facility of some kind, it’s possible that that’s been diverted,” Petrizzo said.. “It makes the community healthier in a way.”
But when Meier and Petrizzo took their proposal to the Platte County Commissioners to ask the Commission to put it on the ballot directly, the Commissioners didn’t agree.
“It’s dangerous to trust a Committee of unelected government officials with spending millions of dollars in deciding what our children need for their mental health,” Platte County Commissioner Joe Vanover said. “It was an easy decision for me.”
Vanover says he views a tax like this as a step towards universal healthcare and that parents should be responsible for getting care for their kids.
Even though the current commissioners would appoint the board if it were to pass, Vanover says the tax will likely outlast the current leaders.
“There’s no sunset on this tax,” Vanover said. “It’s going to go on for years and decades and we just don’t know who will be the next group of committee members who will make these decisions about what your children need for their mental health.”
He says existing services in the county coupled with social workers in schools provides the care that’s needed.
“There’s a need, its always been difficult to be a teenager, but we need to trust families to make the decisions,” Vanover said. “We shouldn’t be forcibly take the tax dollars from families all across Platte County and the region that shop in Platte County and funnel that into one government agency.”
Platte County resident Gail Clopton says he’s generally in favor of a tax like this but says he’d want more information before going to the ballot box.
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“Don’t want to raise it too much because you know, I live on a fixed budget right now,” Clopton said.
One big unknown that might indirectly influence the potential November vote is the effort to expand the Platte County jail.
FOX4 has reported on how over-crowded it already is and the more than $69 million dollar recommendation for plans to expand the Platte City facility. A more firm price tag for that project could come soon, after which Platte County Commissioners would likely have to ask voters for a tax to cover the project either on the August or November ballot.
