By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – McLean County is turning to Bloomington-Normal for help in getting additional funding to address mental health care.
Normal has raised the idea of a sales tax increase of between a quarter-cent and a full cent to fund a number of community programs, including mental health as the county looks to expand the jail to provide treatment for mentally ill inmates.
“Bloomington-Normal is not only the population center, but it’s also the commerce center for McLean County by a long shot,” County Board chairman Matt Sorensen said. “There’s a very, very small of sales tax produced outside of Bloomington-Normal.”
Sorensen added such a tax could generate some of the revenue that such a facility would need to operate but he said the county will also need to seek state and federal grants and will likely need to reprioritize spending.
Bloomington’s budget task force is looking at the sales tax as one of many ideas to plug its deficit. Normal gathered input on the proposed sales tax on Monday night.
It’s not something the county could approve, but Sorensen suspects the county would fully endorse it if it were to come to a public vote.
“My assumption is the County Board would probably pull back to the fences and say ‘We absolutely support the quarter-cent sales tax for mental health, behavioral health and public safety,” Sorensen said. “We don’t have a dog in the hunt on those other topics.”
The county would be getting a share of the money to help provide mental health care at the jail, while the tax would also be used for public transportation, economic development and a new soccer complex.
Bloomington and Normal are able to increase their sales tax rates as home rule communities, McLean County can’t.
Eric Stock can be reached at eric.stock@cumulus.com.
