EDITORIAL: Mental health tax funds should go toward direct solutions

Mar. 26—Yakima County officials insist they haven't made any decisions yet on how they'll spend revenues from the mental health tax that Yakima County commissioners approved in 2019.

But as they listen to the agencies that deal with people suffering homelessness and mental crises, they certainly don't lack for options.

The needs local law enforcement, corrections and court agencies are already outlining would account for the lion's share (about 70%) of the roughly $5 million-plus the 0.1% countywide sales tax is projected to generate each year.

There are other folks we still need to hear from, though.

When it won the unanimous support of the Board of Commissioners at the time — all of whom are out of office now — the dream was to set up an easy-access, one-stop service center for people experiencing homelessness or mental health issues. There was talk of a permanent shelter, counseling, treatment for substance abuse.

Nobody was looking for more ways to prosecute and punish people suffering from mental health issues — quite the contrary. The hope was that treating the root cause of a serious and expensive community problem would help head off the need for police and the court system to get involved to begin with.

It was a nice thought.

The problem was that a lot of complications quickly derailed some key elements of that dream, and nobody's come up with a clear or realistic alternative since then.

So revenues from the tax have been accumulating, but not being dispersed, for the nearly three years the tax has been in place.

At last count, the fund was up to about $13 million. And a figure with that many zeros tends to draw some attention.

County officials have analyzed the community's most pressing needs as they consider how to best allocate the money. Now, they're inviting agencies involved in mental health services to submit their wish lists for the money.

Law enforcement, courts and corrections have been first in line, asking for a total of nearly $3.9 million per year. Social agencies that deliver direct services to people experiencing homelessness or mental crises are up next.

While we respect that the process still has a way to go before anybody starts getting any money, we strongly urge county officials to stick to the mental health tax's original intent: delivering direct help to those who need it most.

As critical a component as police and courts are to maintaining individual and public safety, it's important to recognize that they simply can't provide the best outcomes in every situation.

If your daughter, father or best friend from high school were experiencing a mental health emergency, would your first thought be to call people who'd show up with weapons and handcuffs? Or would you perhaps feel better having a mental health specialist on the scene?

No, the revenues from this tax won't solve all of our problems. Many of them are rooted in the high cost of housing or perhaps a lack of individual education, not just substance abuse or mental issues.

We hope county officials are keeping all those factors in mind as they decide how to use the mental health tax money.

Again, we recognize that the spending proposals currently under consideration aren't final decisions. We simply urge the county to not give up on the original dream of the mental health tax.

Yakima Herald-Republic editorials reflect the collective opinion of the newspaper's local editorial board.

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