EDITOR:
The Missouri law that authorizes the proposed Children’s Services tax also gives the County Commission the authority to decide whether or not to levy the tax, even after a majority of voters have approved the ballot measure. In fact, this law was amended in 2005 specifically to give the commission this authority.
Yes, the majority of the Platte County residents who voted in the most recent election supported this new tax, but this tax affects everyone in Platte County, not just voters. And those that voted in favor represent less than 30% of Platte County’s total population. I’m speaking here today for the other 70%.
In my opinion, the 30% that hopes to impose this new tax on everyone else does not represent the majority of Platte County residents, who I believe do NOT want new taxes like this one. They support taxes that benefit the general population, like the law enforcement, roads, and parks taxes that we have in place today, but they don’t want new taxes that serve special interests, as this proposed new tax would do.
And they definitely don’t want taxes that last forever. That’s right, if enacted, this tax would be in effect FOREVER and voters will never have the opportunity to get rid of it. I hear a lot of talk about overturning the will of the voters, but this proposed tax would be even worse – it would ignore the will of voters for generations to come. How do we know that voters five, 20, or 50 years from now would also vote for this tax? We don’t.
Generations of Platte County residents will inherit this tax, and will be forced to pay this tax, and yet will never get a chance to vote on it. Today’s voters should not be making decisions for future generations of Platte County residents.
We already pay taxes to our school districts, the Platte County Health Department, Tri-County Mental Health Services, the Mid-Continent Public Library system, and the Board of Services for Disabled Citizens. All of these entities already provide services to our youth. If taxpayer-funded mental health services for children are so important, maybe we should see how these existing service providers can step in to help before imposing a new forever tax.
And finally, we can’t tax and spend our way to mental health. No amount of your neighbor’s money will solve this problem. But there are some outstanding non-profits here in the Northland that provide services to our youth and that are well-funded because of the generosity of those who live here. And I should know, because Kelly and I have made significant contributions to these groups in the past. That’s how this should be done, that’s the model. This proposed forever tax would essentially be mandating forced giving, and that’s just not right.
As presiding commissioner I represent all 112,000 Platte County residents and their desire for lower taxes, not just the 30% who want to impose this new forever tax on future generations whose votes on this matter will never be counted.
This is why I voted today to NOT authorize this proposed new forever tax.
--Scott Fricker
Platte County
Presiding Commissioner
