PLATTE CITY, Mo. — The Platte County Commission will not levy a tax that would help fund children’s mental health initiatives, at least for now.
Voters approved of the tax during the November 5, 2024 election, but on Monday, the three-member commission decided not to implement it.
Dozens of people attended the meeting at the Platte County Government Complex Monday morning and residents who supported the tax and opposed it spoke to the commission.
Platte County Presiding Commissioner Scott Fricker’s wife Kelly was one of the residents who spoke in opposition to the children’s services fund tax. As she wrapped up talking, people who supported it started laughing at what she was saying. She argued that the people who supported the tax were a minority of the people in the county.
“32,000 people is less than a third of our population,” she said.
“I think it’s arrogant of this minority to feel that your opinion is the right one.”
The debate was heated Monday, but the voters in the county have already decided on this at the ballot box. 56%, or as Kelly said, nearly 32,000 Platte County voters said yes to this question. 44%, or nearly 25,000 voters said no to this potential quarter-cent sales tax.
After Monday’s public comments, Commissioners Dagmar Wood, Joe Vanover and Scott Fricker all voted not to implement it. The commissioners suggested they had the power to vote down the tax because of the way the measure was worded. They say it authorized the commission to levy the tax, but just because the majority of voters said they wanted this doesn’t mean it’s automatically instituted.
“The 30% of Platte County population that wants to impose this tax on the 70% of the Platte County population that didn’t weigh in on this in favor of it, are overturning the will of future voters because this tax will last forever,” Fricker said after the meeting.
One man who did not support what the commission did was Synergy Services Co-Executive Director Dennis Meier. He spoke to the commission and talked to FOX4 after the decision.
“They are obviously exercising their right to not implement it,” Meier said.
“There’s still a question as to whether the Children’s Services Fund has been established as the voters had chosen on November 5.”
Synergy Services is a mental health agency that may have benefited from the sales tax.
“The next step will be to determine whether this in fact has been established even if it may not be implemented,” Meier said.
“Correct,” he added when asked if that could be a part of a lawsuit.
Meier added he was not surprised by what the commission did. Voters in 11 other Missouri counties, including Jackson and Clay, have passed similar taxes for similar purposes. The quarter-cent sales tax would raise between $5 and $6 million each year to be used to help kids going through a mental health crisis.
Platte County votes against implementing children’s health tax
