12/27/2007: "New Tax May Be Back On Track"

Back in September of this year the County Council received a request from Human Services Division for a new sales and use tax of one-tenth of one percent (i.e.10 cents per $100) to fund a therapeutic court (aka “family dependency court”) and for “chemical dependency services”.

This month (December) the Council was presented a staff report on the results of a mental health task force study to identify needs, and develop a program of services to be funded by the anticipated $300,000.00 plus the new tax is expected to generate each year.

The backbone of the program is a therapeutic court, which will be the first step in court action to provide help and treatment, so long as “participant” agrees to a court ordered therapeutic prescribed program. If not, then the court would revert to normal prosecution in the case.

The Council was told that one of the goals of the state legislation was to “reduce the negative impacts of mental illness and substance abuse on children and families”, and to use treatment; as opposed to jail to prevent crime. In a review of an existing program with Island County, it was determined that one key component of their program was to have the support of a Superior Court Judge.

It had been assuming a new Superior Court Judge for San Juan County would have been appointed by the time the December report was submitted to the Council, but since that had not happened by the time of the scheduled meeting with the council, it was decided the Council would take no action until such time as an appointment was made.

Now that Judge Linde is the new Superior Court Judge , it is expected the Council will follow through and enact the new tax that will, among other things, create a therapeutic court.

At the September meeting, the question of how much public support will there be for a new tax for a new program was raised, to which Councilman Ranker responded that “prevention is always less expensive than treatment.” While it is treatment that the programs is designed to provide, a somewhat submerged premise is that treatment of an existing problem may result in the prevention of future problems.