Sales tax will be going up in Pierce County, but so will services for the mentally ill
After three attempts in four years, the Pierce County Council has passed a sales tax increase to fund more behavioral health services.
The one-tenth of 1 percent tax passed the seven-member council with five votes of approval: Chairman Doug Richardson (R-Lakewood), Vice Char Dave Morell (R-Lake Tapps), council members Connie Ladenburg (D-Tacoma), Marty Campbell (D-Tacoma) and Derek Young (D-Gig Harbor).
Council member Jim McCune (R-Roy) voted against the tax increase. Council member Pam Roach (R-Puyallup) was not present.
Tax increases require a “supermajority,” or five “yes” votes, per county code.
Co-sponsors Morell, Ladenburg and Young spoke in favor of ordinance.
“The time has come to pass this. We cannot ignore this any longer,” Ladenburg said. “We need this tax now more than ever.”
Young said some of his constituents will drive across county lines into Kitsap County because they know they can receive mental health services there.
“That’s embarrassing,” he said.
During a previous attempt to pass the tax in March, Morell was the deciding vote. He told Democrats and the large community turnout that he did not feel comfortable voting for a tax increase until a spending plan was in place. The ordinance was tabled.
“I’ve learned a lot about behavioral health through family experiences in dealing with issues of addiction with family members and also dealing with a death in the family that was because of an addictive behavior that went on and on and on,” Morell said. “But I also understand that there has to be guardrails in place to protect the taxpayer.”
McCune said raising a tax during a time when people are going out of business and are unemployed because of the pandemic is unwise.
“I am really saddened that we are doing this to our society,” he said.
County Executive Bruce Dammeier has 10 days to sign the bill. Dammeier expressed support for the tax increase in a county blog post and thanked Morell for the proposal.
“This proposal advances behavioral health by combining systemic reform, targeted investments and rigorous oversight,” he said in the post.
In 2005, the state granted counties the authority to increase sales tax for new mental health, chemical dependency, or therapeutic court services. The tax can only be approved by elected officials, not by voters at the ballot box.
The bill
If signed, Pierce County’s sales tax will increase by one-tenth of one percent, and all revenue generated would be allocated into a fund for behavioral health education, early intervention and prevention and providing funding for rehabilitation courts.
The tax increase is expected to collect $12 million in a 12-month period. Council members included the spending plan for the initial year:
Mobile Crisis Intervention Response Team, $1,045,000
Intensive services for youth, $1,565,000
Expanded behavioral health services in underserved school districts, $1,565,000
Crisis services for adults, $1,565,000
Assisted outpatient treatment, $525,000
Recovery housing assistance, $2,085,000
Behavioral health services for veterans, $525,000
Criminal justice diversion services, $3,125,000
The bill also looks to overhaul the Medicaid structure in Pierce County. If signed by Dammeier, the county sends a letter to the state and federal governments asking permission to create an “Accountable Care Organization” or “Accountable Care Network.”
If the new Medicaid structure does not receive state, the tax will not be collected.
Pierce County would be the first in the state to implement such a Medicaid model.
Joe Leroy, CEO of HopeSparks which provides counseling to Pierce County families, told the council in public comment that while he is a proponent of the tax, it is “unfortunate” that the council has tied the tax to the Medicaid overhaul plan.
“The mental health tax should be passed without contingency,” he said.
Ladenburg, Young and Campbell like the Medicaid overhaul plan, but also worries about leaving it up to the state to sign off before the tax can be implemented.
“Tethering them may delay services that we already needed many years ago,” Campbell said.
Morell responded to these doubts by saying that tying these two ideas together health care will bring in more than ten times of dollars to Pierce County than the tax alone would. He believes a complete restructure to the system will fill the gaps and provide more preventative care.
“This really adds so much leverage,” Morell said. “I can’t not take that opportunity for our community. Yeah it’s a risk, but it’s a risk worth taking.”
Those in favor of an “Accountable Care” model say the restructure would allow a percentage of Medicaid dollars to remain in Pierce County, rather than return to insurance companies.
The county estimates savings could reach as much as $1 billion dollars over the next 10 years.
“It saves money, because we end up managing the dollars instead of a Managed Care Organization,” Morell told The News Tribune last week. “It removes the middle man and allows us to keep the profits local and not send it back to corporate headquarters.”
More than 230,000 Medicaid recipients reside in Pierce County who use five “managed care organizations” which act as insurance companies for Medicaid.
Alisha Fehrenbacher is the CEO of Elevate Health, FACHE, CEO and president OnePierce Community Resiliency Fund. She has been a proponent of the accountable care organization model.
“These providers, not only do they not always have contracts with a managed care organization, they also have to do billing five different ways and utilization reviews five different ways,” she told The News Tribune on Dec. 18.
Under an accountable care model, contracts with managed care organizations could be renegotiated and local partners would get to decide how dollars would be spent.
Pierce County would oversee a board of local health care service providers, hospitals and community partners to determine how to reallocate funds.
Every two years, there will be a performance review of the expenditures. The tax has a sunset date of Dec. 31 2027, so the future council will have to decide to either renew the tax or let it expire.
This story was originally published December 22, 2020 at 5:42 PM.
