Cole County sales tax to help children proposed

Proponents: Staff shortages, funding constrain agencies' efforts

While a lack of funding has created some constraints on organizations set to help Cole County's youth, staff and volunteer shortages have created an even larger hardship.

During last Monday's Jefferson City Council meeting, city resident Ed Storey spoke about the "Putting Kids First" initiative, started by Cole County residents to develop a Cole County Community Children's Service Fund that would help fund services for youths like crisis intervention, school-based prevention programs, home-based intervention programs, and outpatient substance abuse treatment.

The fund would be created through a 1/4-cent sales tax increase - one penny for every $4 purchase in the county - raising approximately $2.4 million annually, Storey said.

The fund would benefit organizations that work with children and teenagers, such as Capital City Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), The Salvation Army, Pathways and Missouri Valley Big Brothers, Big Sisters, among others.

Local organizations provide services to youths but are "limited to how many (youths) they can help because of a lack of funds," Storey said. He added organizations have to turn individuals away sometimes.

Missouri Valley Big Brothers, Big Sisters offers mentoring programs for children 6-17 years old. Director Lee Knernschield said the agency has a limited budget, which restrains staff from helping more children.

If Missouri Valley Big Brothers, Big Sisters received additional funding, Knernschield said, those funds would go toward adding and supporting staff, with the hope more children would be matched with mentors.

"Our youth is our future, so to help them feel like they can be successful as an adult, I think, would be a huge benefit for our community, helping address mental health needs or maybe they're having academics or self-esteem issues," she said. "For the community to get behind that and support our children more adequately would be a positive outcome."

The Cole County community supports these local agencies through fundraisers and donations, Storey said, but "it's a very small part of the total population that's doing that."

Karen Cade, vice president of Pathways Central Region, said she thought the proposed sales tax increase could provide more prevention programs in schools, such as anti-bullying and healthy lifestyle programs, which would result in fewer youths needing organizations' programs and therapies.

"I think that's a really positive thing this tax could do is getting to people at an early stage before they get to a place where they're needing to have services," she said.

Funding isn't the only sizable restriction for many of these organizations, though.

Cade said Pathways' main issue is a shortage of health providers. Pathways provides several mental health programs, therapies and screenings for youths, as well as connecting them to helpful resources.

"Because there are so many people who need services, we don't really do advertisements because we get full pretty quickly, particularly psychiatry," Cade said. "There's a shortage of psychiatrists so that is a challenge because it could take a lot of time to get into those type of services. So, some of it is a matter of staff shortages, not just a matter of funding."

Cole County was federally designated as a health care professional shortage area for mental health, Storey said Monday. He added he thought the personnel shortage "translates to a lack of access to needed services, which re-translated means we don't have enough money to get the people in here who can help us on this."

At Big Brothers, Big Sisters, about 165 children are matched with mentors, but 40 children are on the waiting list due to a lack of volunteers, Knernschield said.

"That means they've been screened and accepted into our program but we're just trying to find a volunteer to match with them," she said. "When you think that there's 40 kids whose parent or teacher or counselor has reached out and said, 'This kid could really benefit by a mentor,' but we don't have a volunteer to match with them, that's a struggle that our agency experiences."

Capital City CASA is also continuously seeking volunteers to help the organization, Executive Director Gina Clement said. Through CASA, a group of court-appointed special advocates work with children who were removed from a home due to abuse or neglect.

While Capital City CASA doesn't offer public services to children - only services through the court system - Clement said, she understood how having the extra resources could benefit the community. She added there needs to be more discussions with local entities regarding how to provide additional resources to youths.

Knernschield, Cade and Clement said their organizations could not say if they endorsed the proposed sales tax increase, adding the organizations also can't lobby for the potential ballot item.

"Putting Kids First" organizers hope to gather petition signatures to place the proposed tax increase on the April 2 ballot. While the organizers need 3,000 signatures by Jan. 22, they want to reach 5,000.

After they gather signatures, organizers will present the petition to Cole County Commission to place it on the April ballot.

If voters pass the initiative, a nine-member appointed board of Cole County residents would govern the funds, Storey said. The Cole County Commission would appoint the residents, with suggestions from "Putting Kids First" organizers and local agencies that would benefit from the funds.

Other counties have Community Children's Service funds, including Boone County. Boone County voters approved the 1/4-cent sales tax increase in November 2012, generating about $6.7 million annually, according to Boone County Community Services Department's 2017 annual report.

The Boone County Community Services Department and a nine-member board oversee the funds, the report states. The Boone County Commission appoints the board members.

Nearly 30 entities in Boone County used the funds in 2017 to provide services like healthy lifestyles programs, therapy, nursing services, child and family success plans, and community training events, the report notes.

"We're able to invest these tax dollars into prevention programs and counseling and psychiatry, emergency shelters, mentoring programs, all sorts of amazing things to help kids have the best chance and outcomes as possible in life," said Kelly Wallis, Boone County Community Services Department director. "I think the community recognized that there was a need for us to do more for our kids."

While he understands Cole County residents do not want more taxes, Storey said, he believes the proposed 1/4-cent sales tax increase is different from previous proposed taxes. Missouri residents voted down a tax that would have gone toward improving streets and bridges earlier this month, and Jefferson City voters rejected a proposed use tax on online purchases in August.

"I know people don't want more tax, but this isn't about gas tax, this isn't about streets, this isn't about bridges, this isn't about getting taxes to buy more equipment," he said. "This is about saving children's lives. That has got to be worth a quarter of a penny."

Residents can contact organizers at [email protected].