04-03-2025
Missouri Democrat fights to implement Platte County child mental health tax
PLATTE CITY, Mo. – The Children Services Tax in Platte County has a new twist.
Democratic House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, a Kansas City and Platte County resident, has filed a bill that she says would close a loophole the county commission used to avoid implementing the quarter cent sales tax. It was aimed at helping children with their mental health in the county.
56 percent of the voters in the county supported the tax in November of 2024. The commission ended up not implementing the tax.
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Platte County Republican Presiding Commissioner Scott Fricker had not heard of what Aune had done when FOX4 reached out to him Monday morning. Aune's office came out with a news release about this issue Monday. She filed the legislation Thursday.
The three-member county commission said that because of the way state law's worded, counties 'may' implement a Children Services Tax, but they don't have to if they don't want to. Aune says her bill clarifies that if a county's voters approve of establishing a tax like the one Platte County residents did in November of 2024, it must be implemented. FOX4 wasn't able to talk to Aune on camera Monday.
'When voters agree to tax themselves to protect the welfare of children, their wishes must be respected,' Aune said. 'Elected officials who don't like an electoral outcome should have no ability to thwart it. My legislation simply closes a legal loophole to guarantee the will of voters is carried out.'
Besides Aune's bill, supporters of the Platte County tax have sued the county to try to get them to implement it.
'Both actions are intended to placate the base,' Fricker said about both the lawsuit and the legislation. 'Their base is screaming about this, so I understand that they need to do something, and the other similarity is that neither one really has much of a chance of success.'
Fricker pointed us back to a study the Platte County Health Department came out with in January. Fricker's opposition on this issue, Dennis Meier of the mental health agency Synergy Services said that in January, the improvement of the mental health of the children in Platte County was very small.
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Monday, Fricker said there's no mental health crisis in the county.
'It's in my view, a manufactured problem,' Fricker said.
'Really?' FOX4 replied.
'Yes, it's a manufactured problem,' Fricker said.
'Even though the majority of the voters would disagree with that?' FOX4 replied.
'The majority of the people who voted on that day obviously disagree with that,' Fricker said. 'I represent everybody in Platte County, and most people don't vote as we all know.'
Fricker said Platte County already sends $3 million a year to the Clay, Platte, Ray Mental Health Board of Trustees.
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