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Since it was founded in 1963, the Jefferson County Prevention and Recovery board has gone about its mission of planning, coordinating, funding and evaluating quality mental health and addiction prevention, treatment and recovery support services for all residents of the county.
The board has used dollars collected from a 0.5-mill levy that was first passed in 1976 to help support that work.
Officials with the agency are asking voters around the county to approve a 10-year replacement of that levy when they cast their ballots in the Nov. 5 General Election. They should vote "yes."
If passed, the replacement levy will generate $938,000 for the board, according to the Jefferson County Auditor's Office. That will work out to about $18 per year for each $100,000 of a property's assessed value. The average property owner, the board says, will pay an additional $1.15 a month.
It's money that goes to good use. While the board, which was founded in 1963 following the passage of the Community Mental Health Act, does not directly provide clinical services, it does contract with providers to identify needs and develop services to meet those needs. Decisions about how funding will be allocated are made by a 14-member board. Coleman Health Services and Family Recovery Center are among primary contracted agencies.
Those services come with a cost attached. In fact, in fiscal year 2023, the board provided about $3.3 million toward mental health and substance use services. Through the use of local funds, the board is able to meet matching requirements that come with many federal grant programs.
That makes passage of the levy critical: Since collections from the 1976 levy have been locked into the values properties had at that time, the board has been receiving about $500,000 in revenue. If passed, that amount would nearly double.
Failure to generate those additional dollars would likely mean that officials would be faced with difficult decisions within the next couple of years. According to Executive Director Bill Holt, the board will continue to do what it can, but the reality is it would mean its ability to address problems would decrease.
Local service providers would feel the effects of the cuts, he explained, with specialized Jefferson County services -- which are supported primarily with local money -- likely being the first affected.
That doesn't have to happen. Passing the levy and providing increased revenue would mean existing services can continue to be added.
"If we're doing our job well, nobody knows that we're here," Holt explained. "We really want to make sure, even though we've been here for 60 years, that people understand we've been doing this for a long time, and a lot of the things that kind of go unnoticed are by design."
The Jefferson County Prevention and Recovery Board has a long history of providing quality services that are very much needed in our community. Its members always have spent their money wisely and have helped change the lives of countless area residents.
Voters can ensure those services will continue to be available -- and additional services can be offered -- by voting "yes" for the recovery board's replacement levy.