HELP MENTALLY ILL, ADDICTED? NOT WITH CITY FUNDS

Creatively mining local and state funds, Kansas City and St. Louis have
landed more new treatment dollars.

Springfield city officials have always made it clear: Taxpayer services
stop at the basics. That means police and fire, roads and sewers.

Dollars for the indigent or those suffering mental illness or substance
abuse? Look elsewhere.

Historically, the city has looked to Jefferson City for new funding. And
it's been a Springfield legislative priority for the past several years.

The result: zero new treatment dollars.

Mayor Tom Carlson concedes that St. Louis and Kansas City have done better
than Springfield winning new funds for such programs.

But those cities also have anted up. Both major metropolitan areas have
established taxes that fund such social service needs.

In Kansas City, a county quarter-cent sales tax funds law enforcement,
courts, corrections and last year, about $2 million in aid to the indigent
with mental illness or addictions.

Tracey Blaylock, executive director for the Jackson County Community Backed
Anti-Drug Tax, said the 12-year-old tax has been well supported by taxpayers.

In St. Louis, a mental health board oversaw the appropriation last year of
$2.6 million raised through a property tax increase approved seven years
ago. Don Cuvo, executive director of the St. Louis board, said those
dollars leveraged an additional $1.3 million in state and federal grants
that would otherwise not have been available.

A St. Louis nonprofit group called Places for People uses $176,000 from the
tax each year to help the homeless get off the streets for good.

Those dollars work hard. Francie Broderick tells of one homeless man who
finally committed to treatment after two years of coaxing.

"Part of the problem is that population often doesn't bring themselves in"
for help, said Broderick, executive director at Places for People. "So when
the overall system is already underfunded and you have people who want
services, there's not a lot of incentive for providers to fund people who
don't want services."

Ann Cobb knows those people well. The executive director of Sigma House,
Springfield's primary detox and treatment center for indigent and
low-income people, is excited about a mobile outreach unit that will soon
hit the streets in search of homeless who want help with mental illness or
substance abuse. But the program does not have the funding sources Kansas
City and St. Louis provide.

With this year's state cutbacks, Cobb can't meet her existing client needs.
Outpatient treatment is a two-month wait. "We've never been able to meet
the needs in the community," she said. "We've always had waits. The waits
are more significant now."

Springfield-Greene County Health Department Director Harold Bengsch
believes the metro area is fast approaching "critical mass" in need for new
levels of substance-abuse and mental-health funding. "Quite frankly, I
think we've reached it," Bengsch added.

Presiding County Commissioner Dave Coonrod believes it would be difficult
to pass a social service tax in the conservative Ozarks.

"This is a tough issue," he said. "Even though we can't do as much as St.
Louis or Kansas City, I think Greene County and the Springfield area does
our fair share with what we have."