But if governing boards like McHenry County Board continue to lower mental health board levy amounts, that control could be lost in 2024
Exclusive to McHenry County Blog from John Lopez
UPDATE 7/29/23: Late Friday, Governor JB Pritzker signed HB 475 into law, effective January 1, 2024. ACMHAI handout of new law’s impacts on McHenry County Mental Health Board and other similar boards summarized at the end of the article.
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The McHenry County 708 Mental Health Board (MCMHB) plans to ask for additional spending of $2.5 million in the County’s Community Mental Health Fund which first-term District 4 Republican McHenry County Board Member Mike Shorten stated he would oppose any levy increase request when the County’s property tax levy including the MCMHB portion comes before the McHenry County Board this fall.
Shorten, who won election last fall by 23 votes made headlines when his stance first became public at the May 23 meeting of the MCMHB.
After all of the public comment from the May 23 MCMHB meeting, the 9 appointed members of the MCMHB approved the FY24 budget with spending increase by a 5-4 vote, per the meeting minutes:
Aye (5): Greg Alexander, Mike Baber, Christina Bruhn, Lindsay Keisman, and Amy Rath
Nay (4): Adam Carson, Ray Lapinas, Paula Yensen, and President Connee Meschini
Per former County Board Member (and current MCMHB County Board liaison) Paula Yensen (D, Lake in the Hills) from the May 23 MCMHB meeting minutes, McHenry County Board Chairman Mike Buehler (R, Crystal Lake) stated there will be 3 budgets created based on 0%, 2.5%, and 5% levy increase and states the MHB should be presenting multiple budgets. Supporting a $2.5 million ask is unrealistic.
Must be clarified, a $2.5 million spending increase does not necessarily mean an equal increase in the MCMHB portion of the County’s levy. On May 23, the MCMHB voted unanimously to spend-down $1,000,000 in the projected reserve for the end of the MCMHB fiscal year in order to fund FY 2024 spending. In spite of the spend-down, the need for services, per the reasons cited below, will need additional revenues, per the options outlined above. The County Board will not set the 2023 levy, which includes the MCMHB funding, until the fall, prior to the beginning of the County’s fiscal year on December 1.
Traditionally, the McHenry County Board has voted for the MCMHB portion of the County’s property tax levy without amendment. But with increased demand for mental health services and rising costs in a variety of areas due to inflation and the labor shortage, MCMHB has no choice but to pass this along to the taxpayers in the form of the MCMHB levy, as long as the increase is within the limit set by the tax cap.
HB 475 and Mental Health Board Levying Power
But what is generally unknown is during the 103rd Illinois General Assembly’s spring session completed in late May, legislation was proposed to eliminate the County Board’s, and all governing bodies of mental health boards around the state the ability to amend and lower the mental health board’s levy. Had legislation originally proposed in a “shell bill” in late March passed in its original form, Shorten and the rest of the McHenry County Board would no longer be able to vote against the MCMHB portion of the County’s property tax levy.
The bill, known as HB 475, contained the following language when first proposed as a “gut & replace” amendment to amend the Community Mental Health Act in late March:
“the governing body of such governmental unit shall thereafter annually levy a tax, as deemed necessary by the communithy mental health board, not to exceed the rate set forth…the governing body shall in the annual appropriation bill appropriate from such funds such sum or sums of money as may be deemed necessary by the community mental health board, based upon the community mental health board’s budget…”
The amended HB 475 was quickly passed out of committee and passed on the House floor without opposition on March 24, which was the final day the General Assembly was in session prior to its 2-week spring break recess.
Growth of Mental Health Boards and Governing Bodies Altering Initial Levy Prompted Legislation
Voter-approved referenda creating mental health boards at the city, township, or county level have grown in recent years, in-part due to the pandemic and the rise in mental health, substance abuse (opioid, fentanyl) and developmental disabilities in children and adults alike.
In recent years, the following geographies have passed referenda to create a mental health board:
- Elgin Township (Kane County), March 2020
- Dundee Township (Kane County), March 2020
- Winnebago County, by county ordinance and voter approved sales tax to fund mental health services, March, 2020
- Milton Township (DuPage County), April 2021
- Will County, November 2022 (with population just under 700K, this is the largest mental health board in Illinois)
- Lisle Township (DuPage County), November 2022
- Naperville Township (DuPage County), November 2022
- Addison Township (DuPage County), November 2022
- Schaumburg Township (Cook County), November 2022
- Wheeling Township (Cook County), November 2022
- Vernon Township (Lake County), November 2022
Only Winfield Township in DuPage County saw a mental health referendum defeated last fall by a narrow margin in the Chicagoland area.
Stakeholders only found out about the community mental health boards’ proposed ability to supersede their governing boards in early to mid April. The bill sponsor is state Representiave Daniel Didech (D, Buffalo Grove), with the Senate sponsor state Senator Adriane Johnson (D, Buffalo Grove). The last two on the list of approved mental health referenda are political geographies for the village of Buffalo Grove on both sides of the Lake-Cook county line.
As each community mental health board is initially formed, the initial levy recommended by the appointed mental health board members must be approved by the governing board. But a pattern had developed in recent years where the governing board would amend and lower the community mental health levy when approving the final levy, usually at the December meeting.
For example, Milton Township’s 708 Mental Health Board recommended an initial levy of $1.125 million to provide mental health contracted funding for township residents with a 2020 Census population of 120,237 people. The Milton Township Board of Trustees approved a 2021 levy of $800,000 to fund the voter-approved mental health board. The same levy amount was passed at the end of 2022.
Similar levy reductions were done in Dundee and Elgin townships in Kane County at the end of 2022.
But another development in January may have prompted HB 475 — appointments to the Wheeling Township Mental Health Board, which drew criticism more mental health advocates who had helped pass the referendum were not part of the initial 7-member mental health board. Two of the appointees included the wife of the Arlington Heights mayor and a failed Republican state representative candidate, and observers believed several qualified candidates among the 23 applications filed with the township supervisor did not receive a phone call form the township supervisor.
Wheeling Township includes the Cook County portion of Buffalo Grove.
Intervention by Township Officials, ACMHAI and Senator Don DeWitte removed the controversial levy language from HB 475
Several suburban mental health boards participated in the Association of Community Mental Health Authorities of Illinois (ACMHAI) membership meeting April 13-14 in Springfield and HB 475 was discussed at length.
The ACMHAI membership took a vote on a resolution to oppose HB 475 as written by an 8-0 margin with 11 abstentions.
While there are other clean-up provisions of HB 475 which will impact MCMHB and all mental health boards across the state, the levy override for mental health boards was the controversial issue.
Other provisions include:
- Four-year terms of MHB members will no longer be January 1 – December 31 for calendar years, but flexibility to appoint members throughout the year for full 4-year terms
- Mandatory reorganization within 30 days of mental health boards, through election of officers, whenever the governing board appoints or reappoints members to full terms (currently, MCMHB holds officer elections each June)
After the April 14 ACMHAI meeting, ACMHAI’s lobbyists began discussions with the bill sponsors and communicated ACMHAI’s opposition to the HB 475 as originally presented.
Senator Don DeWitte (R, St. Charles), was able to have a Senate amendment introduced to HB 475 for governing boards who appoint one of their members to the mental health boards as allowed by the current law, their term on the mental health board must be concurrent to their elected term. The DeWitte amendment continued the flexibility for the governing boards to decide to keep appointing one of their board members to mental health boards, or to not appoint a member.
The McHenry County Board has done both, and when former County Board Member Paula Yensen left the County Board last November, she continues to serve on the MCMHB, and County Board Chairman Mike Buehler did not appoint a County Board member to serve on MCMHB at the end of 2022. Had the DeWitte Amendment been in place within the Community Mental Health Act, Yensen’s term on MCMHB would have ended when she left office after her County Board term expired.
Concerning the levy language, the Metropolitan Township Association (no McHenry County townships in the Metropolititan’s membership), the Township Officials of Illinois and ACMHAI worked together to finalize the levy language to HB 475 for its final Senate approval, which returned to the House for concurrence on the Senate amendments prior to going to Governor Pritzker. The combined lobbying effort resulted in Senate Floor Amendment 3, which included the DeWitte amendment and removed the levy override for community mental health boards over governing boards.
Crisis Averted, for Now
With the controversial levy override removed from HB 475, the clean-up bill for the Community Mental Health Act passed the Senate without opposition, and received unanimous House concurrence of the new Senate amendment.
But should Shorten get his way, and the MCMHB recommended levy for 2023 property tax year up for approval at the end of 2023 is amended significantly from the needs the MCMHB recommends, and/or if other governing boards (county boards, township boards or city councils) do not approve mental health board recommendations, look for the sponsors for HB 475 to return in the 2024 spring session with the levy override.
Look for it to pass in 2024, and if that happens, governing boards only have themselves to blame.
ACMHAI prepared this one-page summary of all of the changes being implemented with HB 475. Governor JB Pritzker signed HB 475 on Friday, July 28, with an implementation date of January 1, 2024:
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For disclosure, John Lopez serves on a local township mental health board and voted to abstain on the resolution at the ACMHAI meeting.
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