St. Charles tax money down for mental health agencies

Mental health agencies that receive some funding from a special tax in St. Charles hoped to get more cash in the 2012-13 fiscal year. Instead, they’ll get less.

Aldermen this week reviewed requests from 22 outside agencies that applied for funding from the city. Four cents of every property tax dollar that comes to the city is set aside to help fund the agencies. Last year, that tax collected $634,000. This year, the agencies asked for about $743,000 in financial help from the city, but there is only $588,100 to go around.

Agencies receiving the bulk of the funds are:

Ÿ TriCity Family Services — $200,000

Ÿ Association for Individual Development — $70,000

Ÿ Ecker Center — $65,000

Ÿ Renz Addiction Center — $60,000

Ÿ Lazarus House — $45,600

“To paraphrase someone else, whenever we give to the least of our brethren, we give to each other,” Alderman Ray Rogina said in approving the funding list. “I think the organizations that came before us exemplify that.”

All of the agencies that will receive funding treat or assist St. Charles residents on a regular basis, according to their funding applications. For example, TriCity Family Services treated 3,147 people last year, 907 of whom were St. Charles residents. The treatment costs for just the St. Charles residents totaled $337,435 last year.

Several of the organizations who help patients dealing with addictions said synthetic marijuana is becoming a growing problem for more of their clients. The city banned the sale of synthetic marijuana last November. St. Charles Unit District 303 took on the issue for its student population shortly afterward. Kane County has also discussed a ban.