Primary voters approved a referendum March 17 that will levy a 0.5% limited sales tax for a mental health board to distribute an estimated $14.7 million annually to service providers and programs.
Nearly 53% of Sangamon County primary voters supported the referendum, which received 17,300 votes. Only about 24% of registered voters, roughly 33,500 people, in Sangamon County cast ballots during the primary election.
A wide range of community leaders, along with both hospitals and every health care organization in Sangamon County, supported the referendum that would use revenue from a limited sales tax to distribute millions of tax dollars to social service and mental health care providers through a dedicated mental health board. Local taxes as a funding mechanism for mental health services is something two-thirds of counties in Illinois have already approved, although most utilize property taxes.
Ryan Croke, president of the Mid-Illinois Medical District, sent a statement to Illinois Times celebrating the vote.
“Tonight, more than 17,000 voters across Sangamon County delivered an extraordinary, history-making victory – and with it, a solemn responsibility to strengthen the local systems that support families facing mental illness, substance use disorders and developmental disabilities,” Croke wrote. “This win puts us on a path to make our neighborhoods safer and healthier.”
Tiara Standage, founder of harm reduction nonprofit Intricate Minds, responded to an inquiry from Illinois Times through text message that she’s “so proud of our community” for voting to pass the referendum. She referenced how mental health professionals, rather than police, could aid people in crisis.
“This is a huge step forward – and a step toward justice for Sonya Massey. If trained mental health professionals had responded that night instead of Sean Grayson, Sonya would still be here,” Standage wrote. “This vote represents one of the many changes that must happen within a system that has failed, and cost lives. We will keep pushing for accountability, for care over force, and for a future where our people are truly protected.”
Sangamon County Board Chair Andy Van Meter recently told Illinois Times that the county expects to nominate members to the mental health board within a month or so, if the referendum passed. He also said he expected the board to end up closer to nine individuals rather than seven.
Related
A desert for mental health care
Other counties
Winnebago County voters overwhelmingly approved the sales tax referendum during the 2020 primary election with about 62% voting in favor. Winnebago, where Rockford is located, is in its second year of a three-year, almost $60 million plan to fund more than three dozen social service programs that focus on mental health treatment, case management, crisis response, housing and more. The Sangamon County Mental Health Commission recommended a mental health board adopt a similar strategy of planning three years ahead in addition to current fiscal year budgeting.
In 2024, just about 53% of McHenry County voters approved a switchover from property tax to sales tax to fund their mental health board. Last month, McHenry County, which has had a mental health board since 1967, reported an increase in mental health funding after its first year of funding the board through a sales tax. In its current fiscal year, McHenry County’s Mental Health Board committed around $10 million to more than 30 different organizations.
Champaign County, which is closer in population size to Sangamon County, utilizes a property tax to fund nearly 40 programs with about $6 million. Among other programs, the Champaign County Mental Health Board is currently funding crisis co-response teams, reentry housing vouchers for people exiting prison, general affordable housing vouchers and programs that hire specialized therapists such as counselors for pregnant women, children or survivors of sexual assault.
All these additional sales taxes just pushing consumers to online purchases, which is happening anyway, but sped up by these increases. For example, Scheels area will be at 11.25% general merchandise now. I regularly go into the store look at something, then go home and purchase online. Usually ships to my house in 3 days and I save 3%.
You have summed it up! But who cares about local businesses
The referendum was supported by both hospitals and every healthcare organization in the county. It passed with 17,300 votes. The hospitals alone employee 18,000 people. I was one of the 15,500 people that voted NO. It wasn’t a NO to the board. It was a NO to the people paying for it, a NO to the county nominating its board, a NO to hospital or county administrators as board members.
Non-profit hospitals operate as ‘charities’ to avoid property taxes, under the legal requirement that their surplus be reinvested into service, education, and community benefit. However, internal administrative inflation is prioritized over community infrastructure. Memorial spent $3.85 million on “rebranding”, just to drop one word from its name. Executive compensation (peaking at $10.8M for a single CEO) over direct community aid. This new sales tax supplements their budget. It takes from the community rather than utilizing their existing surplus to address the mental health crisis.
The property tax for the main hospital alone, would cost Memorial an estimated $7 million to $8.4 million a year, payable to the Sangamon County general fund. HSHS St John’s would owe an estimated $5.6 million to $7 million annually. That is $12.6 million to $15.4 million lost every year in property taxes, and that’s not including any of their many other locations.
With a county poverty rate of 13.1%, the 0.5% sales is a regressive burden. Springfield’s sales tax is 9.75% (6.25% state, 2.5% city, and 1.0% county) and with the approved 0.5% increase, the total rate rises to 10.25%. Because financial stress is a leading contributor to mental health issues, the tax itself may exacerbate the very crisis it claims to solve. Responsible governance would require these non-profit entities to prove they have exhausted their own ‘surplus’ funds before asking for a public levy. The referendum passed, the people are taxed, but the hospitals remain tax exempt.
The Sangamon County Board Chair plans to nominate the Mental Health Board. There is a glaring conflict of interest when the county board and members of the healthcare administration—who have already overseen a period of declining community health and rising institutional profits—are appointed to govern public tax dollars. This creates a closed loop where the provider, the lobbyist, and the regulator are all part of the same institutional network. Public funds to support community-led initiatives should be directed by members of the community.
Lincoln has a Walmart too. About the same distance for me. But why were people in Menard County who work and shop and thus are forced to pay this tax disenfranchised?