Platte County voters are taking the Platte County Commission to court in hopes it can force implementation of the voter-approved children’s mental health services tax.
The petition for a writ of mandamus was filed Wednesday, Feb. 19 in Platte County, in reaction to what the relators call “an obstinate county government.”
The Platte County 4 Kids Coalition, which spearheaded efforts to get the tax placed on the November 2024 ballot, has been working toward getting the tax approved for about a year.
Early last year, the coalition came before the commission to ask it to place a quarter-cent sales tax on the ballot to support expanded mental health services for residents under 19 years of age. Commissioners declined. In June, the coalition submitted approximately 8,400 signatures to the Platte County Clerk’s Office to place a quarter-cent sales tax initiative on the Nov. 5 ballot. This, too, was declined, until the court ordered the Board of Elections to place it on the November ballot. There, it passed with 56 percent of voters approving of the new tax.
Then, on Monday, Dec. 16, commissioners voted unanimously to not levy the tax, after a contentious two-hour commission meeting, with many members of the public speaking out in support of the tax.
County attorney Rob Redman said commissioners could choose not to levy the tax due to the language in state statute, that said the county commission “may” levy the tax. This language implies the commission may also chose to not levy the tax.
The petition was filed last week on behalf of Greg Plumb and Tara Bennett, both of Parkville, against the commission and the Missouri Department of Revenue.
The petition suggests two methods by which the commission can levy the tax: “Relators, as Platte County citizens and qualified voters, have a clear, unconditional legal right to have the Children’s Services Tax collected. There are two ways this Court can recognize that right. This Court could find that Respondents Commission Office, Fricker, Berberich, and Vanover failed to complete their ministerial, non-discretionary, statutory duty to acknowledge the vote on the Children’s Services Tax, and issue a Writ requiring them to enact an Order implementing the will of the people, as expressed through the majority vote. The simpler path, however, would be for the Court to deem the vote of the people to be the “ordinance or order” referenced in the controlling statutes.”
On Friday, Feb. 21, Judge Megan Benton was assigned to the case.
Though Commissioner Allyson Berberich was named in the petition, she was not in office at the time of the decision in December. Dagmar Wood was first district commissioner at the time.
In the petition, the relators state the commission has no power to override the will of a majority of voters, that the Department of Revenue has a ministerial duty to process the children’s services tax and that Missouri law does not permit the commission to nullify a decision made by Platte County voters.
“Desperate for a way to avoid levying a voter-approved Children’s Services Tax, Commission Respondents have said they rely on the use of “may” in the first sentence of Section 67.1775.1 to justify their refusal to implement the will of the people,” the petition states. “Commission Respondents apparently adopted the advice of the Platte County Counselor that ‘it is discretionary and it’s up to the Commission after being authorized by the public, pursuant to the initiative petition, now it is up to the Commission to decide whether or not to levy that tax and that is our, my, legal opinion as the County Counselor.’”
The use of “may” simply identifies the pre-conditions for a county to have authority to levy a children’s services tax, the petition argues. It does not vest the commission with discretion to do what they want after a vote of the people.
The commission is also asked to appoint a nine-member board to administer the funds generated by the children’s services tax.
In the weeks before the lawsuit was filed, The Citizen reached out to Platte County 4 Kids for comment on the commission’s actions. The matter was referred to Synergy Services but there was no response to the inquiry.