The people’s will is not optional. Platte County must enact children’s fund now | Opinion

This week, Platte County Commissioners refused to enact a quarter-cent sales tax meant to address youth mental health. Nevermind that 56% of voters there approved establishing the Children’s Service Fund of Platte County to expand mental health services for young people up to 19 years old.

On Monday, the commission unanimously approved an order rejecting the tax. To this three-member, all-Republican legislative body, it seems democracy no longer matters. But it does.

By willfully ignoring the needs of their constituents, Commissioners Scott Fricker, Joe Vanover and Dagmar Wood put their own self-interest — dare we say ideology? — ahead of what’s best for teens and young children in Platte County.

“We need lower taxes and more freedom, not higher taxes and more government interference,” Vanover said.

In this case, Vanover and his colleagues are flat-out wrong. In November, voters spoke loud and clear about helping young people address mental health challenges.

Yet, somehow these three commissioners believe they have the option to override the will of voters. Platte County’s legal counsel explained the commission has the authority to reject the tax, calling it “discretionary.”

Other legal experts disagreed.

Also of note: This same commission fought against this sales tax every step of the way but failed miserably. We make this summation based on the outcome of a successful initiative petition and subsequent court ruling that ordered the Platte County Board of Elections to place the sales tax question that voters approved on the November ballot.

State Rep. Ashley Aune, a Democrat from the Northland, is the incoming minority leader in the Missouri House of Representatives. She was one of several people who spoke during the public comment period of Monday’s meeting.

Aune challenged the commissioners to do what is right for children, but they obviously refused to listen.

It is the view of the Editorial Board that Aune and others from the mental and behavioral health sector echoed how many Platte Countians should feel.

“This is an absolutely absurd overriding of the will of the voters here in Platte,” Aune said. “Rejecting the will of the voters undermines the faith of our voters in this system and you as commissioners and our entire democracy.”

Need we say more?

To us, some of the flimsy arguments made by the commissioners to justify rejecting this voter-approved tax — they stated they had some sort of issue with the ballot language and higher taxes — doesn’t hold weight. This is especially true when a legal and constitutional issue such as the children’s services fund is brought before voters and overwhelmingly approved.

“You were against this from the beginning, which is wild to me,” Aune said. We find it difficult to disagree with this assessment.

If created, the Children’s Services Fund would raise nearly $5 million a year, according to Platte County for Kids Coalition, which favored the tax.

The increased levy would help fill gaps in available mental health screening, treatment and other services for young folks in the Northland, supporters contend.

Nonprofit organizations and schools would be allowed to apply for grants from the tax money. And a board of community members appointed by the Platte County Commission itself and an outside auditing firm would manage revenue collected from the fund, according to the Kids Coalition.

At the ballot box, Platte County voters said they had learned from their neighbors. The set-up would be similar to tax funds for children’s services that exist in Clay, Jackson and other counties across Missouri.

Knowing all of this, who in their right mind would be against a tax meant to help kids?