If COMBAT &mdash; Jackson County&rsquo;s anti-drug program supported by a quarter-cent sales tax &mdash; really worked, wouldn&rsquo;t it rid the county of drugs?</p><p>So then why would it be needed?</p><p>Or so goes the critics&rsquo; riddle about the tax, which stands for renewal on Tuesday. </p><p>But Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser, who held a news conference last week to support COMBAT&rsquo;s renewal, had a quick comeback when that very question was raised.</p><p>&ldquo;If a school does a good job at education, it doesn&rsquo;t mean you don&rsquo;t need the school,&rdquo; the mayor quipped.</p><p>Supporters won&rsquo;t go so far as to say that the tax should be perpetual. Right now, it&rsquo;s on a cycle of renewal every seven years. But they say the community&rsquo;s continuing drug problem and violent crime make it necessary to renew the tax.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s absolutely essential that we continue this,&rdquo; Funkhouser added. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t let up. We&rsquo;ve got to keep it going.&rdquo;</p><p>Kansas City Police Chief Jim Corwin said the drug and violent crime issue is so complex that the community must address it in a variety of ways, which COMBAT does.</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve talked and talked and talked that some crime issues are so complex, there&rsquo;s no one answer,&rdquo; Corwin said. &ldquo;Heaven knows what (the city&rsquo;s crime) would look like if we didn&rsquo;t have those resources.&rdquo;</p><p>Corwin pointed out that Kansas City police receive $2.2 million from the $20 million or so that the tax produces each year.</p><p>Other supporters of COMBAT &mdash; which stands for the Community-Backed Anti-Drug Tax &mdash; say they worry that the worst economy in decades will make it difficult to win the vote next week. </p><p>COMBAT funds a variety of programs, from law enforcement to residential drug treatment and prevention efforts. As a result, said Calvin Williford, the county&rsquo;s chief of intergovernmental operations, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s a challenge to let people know how all these dollars touch the community in so many different ways.&rdquo; </p><p>Many people are familiar with the DARE program or Hope House, but do not know that both receive COMBAT support, Williford said.</p><p>Opponents raise questions about how effective COMBAT programs are and whether the tax is necessary.</p><p>Bob Gough of the Jackson County Taxpayers Association said citizens concerned about the tax have little incentive to finance any effort to defeat it at the polls. </p><p>But Gough has serious reservations about the programs&rsquo; effectiveness. For one, the DARE program, which teaches schoolchildren about the afflictions of drug addiction, has been questioned nationally as being little more effective than doing nothing, Gough said.</p><p>Gough also asks whether it&rsquo;s foolish for taxpayer dollars to be spent in the war on drugs.</p><p>If the nation decriminalized drugs, COMBAT wouldn&rsquo;t be necessary, he said. Gough would prefer to keep the money in taxpayers&rsquo; pockets.</p><p>Drug problems still exist, says Richard Tolbert, a city gadfly who has regularly opposed the tax since its first approval in 1989. Repeatedly renewing it, Tolbert said, hasn&rsquo;t worked. It&rsquo;s time, he said, to try a new approach.</p><p>When COMBAT was first approved, it was the only anti-drug program in the nation supported by a sales tax. Today, the programs it created, such as its Drug Court, are now common in many cities.</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="infobox-head">JACKSON COUNTY</span></strong><br /> </div>