Bill would give Perry program tax support

A Perry County program that provides mentoring programs for high school students and dropouts as well as more intensive help to combat drug abbuse and teen drinking could seek help from taxpayers next year.

The Missouri Legislature this year approved a bill authorizing Perry County to impose a quarter-cent sales tax for youth and senior citizen programs. If signed by Gov. Matt Blunt, voters could see the tax on their ballots as early as April 2008, county commissioner Patrick Naeger said.

Since its inception in the late 1990s, Communities Helping Adolescents Mature Positively and Successfully, has grown from an after-school mentoring program to one that incorporates several efforts to aid young people, director Janette Klobe said.

If approved, the tax would raise about $575,000 a year, with the proceeds split between senior citizens programs such as Meals on Wheels and CHAMPS.

CHAMPS operates on donated funds and grants and had a budget of about $120,000 last year, Klobe said. "Most of it is funded through grants, and grants are just not that dependable," she said. "Two years ago, one of our major grants was not renewed, and we knew we wouldn't be able to continue at the same level."

CHAMPS grew out of a community needs assessment conducted in 1995, Klobe said.

Out of more than 1,000 responses, the assessment determined that the most pressing problems for Perry County teenagers were substance abuse, pregnancy, a decline in values, juvenile delinquency and risky sexual behavior.

Last year CHAMPS had 80 high school students linked with mentors in the community, including business owners, medical administrators, nurses and others, Klobe said.

The organization also runs a mentoring program for drop outs, which identified substance abuse and drinking as the two factors most likely to contribute to quitting school, she said. But that program has been cut back as grant money dried up, and participants no longer receive transportation help, child care and other incentives to work on their GEDs. "We cut that out when we didn't have a grant to pay for that anymore," she said.

Commissioners and area lawmakers got behind the proposal to for the legislature to authorize a sales tax because CHAMPS is seen as a real success story, Naeger said.

"These kinds of programs are seeing less and less dollars," he said. "Sometimes communities have to step up to the plate if they have something good and want to keep it."

rkeller@semissourian.com

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