Supporters say ballot item could boost children's services in county

A measure that supporters say has been four years in the making will be up for voter approval in next week's election.

If approved, Proposition K would levy a one-quarter-cent tax to create a community children's services fund that would support mental-health services for children living in Cape Girardeau County.

Missouri passed a law in the early 1990s that allowed counties to establish the funds to serve children through age 19. Voters have approved similar measures in eight counties across the state.

Money from the fund can be dedicated only to specific services such as outpatient psychiatric treatment, school-based intervention programs and services to teenage mothers. Agencies may request funds for programs that fall within those guidelines and a board of citizen volunteers appointed by the county would have to approve the decision. The board also would have an executive director. The statute requires the board be audited each year by an independent auditor.

The measure initially was introduced to the Cape Girardeau County Commission in April by the Putting Kids First Coalition, which is made up of 13 organizations, including Big Brothers Big Sisters, Community Counseling Center and the United Way of Southeast Missouri.

A needs assessment conducted in 2011 revealed a $5 million gap in services and that agencies providing assistance for the homeless, pregnant teens and youths battling mental illness were forced to turn many people away because of a lack of resources.

Kyle Schott, program manager for Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri -- another group in the Putting Kids First Coalition -- said Cape Girardeau County ranks among some of the poorest counties in the state when it comes to unmet needs and the percentage of high school dropouts or teen pregnancy.

"Given the resources we have here, it's really overwhelming and really telling," he said.

Teen homelessness in the county has nearly doubled in the past two years to 240, but there is no facility in the county that will accept unaccompanied minors. Teen pregnancy rates have remained stable, according to the needs assessment, but agencies offering counseling and assistance still turned away 24 teen parents in 2010.

Young mothers and their children typically have less access to health care and an increased risk for health problems, creating the likelihood they will have a long-term dependency on welfare. If the creation of a children's services fund decreased teen pregnancy rates in Cape Girardeau, Schott said those savings alone "would be worth it."

Other counties that have created similar funds have seen the kinds of results Schott and other Prop K supporters would like to see locally. St. Charles County passed a one-fourth-cent sales tax nine years ago and has since seen a 40.5 percent drop in teenage pregnancy, a 44.4 percent decrease in the high school dropout rate and a 57.4 percent drop in delinquency offenses.

Annie Schulte, executive director of the Franklin County Children and Families Community Resource Board, said her county has seen similar positive results. Voters there approved the measure in November 2008. The tax went into effect in April 2009 and funding to programs started in October of 2009, she said.

By 2012, Schulte said decreases in children's lifetime use of alcohol, cigarettes and prescription drugs became noticeable. She attributes that to school-based prevention programming, which starts in kindergarten and continues through high school.

"The prevention programs are from several different agencies," she said. "Part of my job as executive director over the fund is to work with our agencies and make sure everybody is working together in concert rather than having any kind of overlapping services ... and this way, programs and the different lessons build on each other."

Proponents of Prop K also have touted the locally controlled fund as a way to protect children's services from the political battle over the state's budget. More than $1 billion was cut from the 2015 budget, reducing funds to many state and local mental health agencies, including the Cottonwood Residential Treatment Facility. But if voters approve the tax, it could provide funding for some services provided by the facility that helps children between the ages of 6 and 17 with serious psychiatric disorders.

Cottonwood employees, mental-health professionals and state representatives attended a Missouri House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting in Jefferson City last week to offer testimonies and prevent the facility's impending closure by 2015. It was there that the question was posed to Missouri Department of Mental Health officials of whether the fund could assist Cottonwood.

Cape Girardeau Rep. Kathy Swan said she reached out to legislative researchers and another state representative who was also a lawyer to seek an answer. They agreed, along with mental-health director Keith Schafer, that some of the services provided by Cottonwood could be funded through Prop K. But there's no guarantee of how much money the facility could receive, since the disbursement of funds must be approved by the appointed board.

That's one aspect that has troubled some voters, including Linda Reutzel, vice chairwoman of No MO Tax.

"When you're dealing with our tax money, that's kind of a problem," she said. "I'd rather it be elected and I'd rather we have more of a say ... and that their books be more out in the open."

After some research, she said No MO Tax managed to compile 20 pages of programs available for children and families. The list of services ranges from prevention programs and play groups to emergency preparedness.

With so many programs already available, Reutzel questions the need to fund more.

"I'm all for helping anybody that needs it, but with 20 pages of programs, I'm sure we've got some redundancy," she said. " ... If you've got a problem out there, we've got something that's going to take care of it. So there's really no reason for anybody to slip through the web of programs that we have right now, and if there is, then we need to reorganize. ..."

Schott said Prop K was not just about creating new programs, but bolstering existing ones. Without consistency, he said it's difficult for programs to affect change. He pointed to anti-bullying as an example.

"You could provide a program every couple years and it could be great, but in a couple years you have a whole new crop of kids," he said.

Reutzel said she also would like to see children receive the help they need, but wonders if there's another way to achieve the goal.

"It's a bad time to start another tax," she said. "I just don't think Prop K is the way to go."

The 2011 county needs assessment and other information is available at kidsfirstcape.com. The list of programs generated by No MO Tax is available at nomotax.org.

srinehart@semissourian.com

388-3641

Ballot language

Proposition K: Shall Cape Girardeau County, solely for the purpose of establishing a community children's services fund (authorized under RSMo. 67.1775) for the purpose of providing services to protect the well-being and safety of children and youth nineteen years of age or less and to strengthen families, be authorized to levy a sales tax of one-quarter of a cent in the County of Cape Girardeau?