SPRINGFIELD – A referendum appearing on the March 17 primary election ballot will decide if Sangamon County has increased options for dealing with mental health needs.

The new proposal seeks to implement a countywide 0.5% sales tax increase to raise funds for a municipal level mental health board. Recommended after years of analysis from two separate county commissions, the creation of the new board is being seen by several county officials as essential infrastructure. The question being put to voters is whether or not they agree.

In the wake of the 2024 murder of Sonya Massey, who was killed by a Sangamon County deputy after calling 911 for help during a mental health crisis in her Springfield home, both the Massey Commission and resulting Sangamon County Mental Health Commission (SCMHC) recommended the new sales tax to fund a 708 Mental Health Board – stating in the SCMHC final report that such a locally controlled tax mechanism could produce nearly $15 million annually and is better suited to address the needs of the community.

According to projections from the report, the proposed increase means shoppers would pay roughly five cents more on a $10 purchase, although this excludes groceries, prescriptions and other items exempt under Illinois sales tax law.

The Massey Commission and 708 Mental Health Boards

Commonly called “708 boards” because of their authorization under Section 708 of the Illinois Community Mental Health Act – this portion of state law allows counties, with voter approval, to establish a local mental health board and levy a dedicated tax to fund services.

First authorized in 1963, 708 boards were an attempt by state lawmakers to direct care away from institutional state psychiatric wards and into community-based ecosystems. The shift was a part of a broader movement championed by President Kennedy allowing individual counties, through voter approval, to levy local taxes for funding mental health, drug addiction and developmental disabilities.

Referendum supporters, including members of the Massey Commission and SCMHC, say this proposal addresses systemic gaps in care, including crisis-response and in-jail-treatment – issues which have kept a spotlight on local law enforcement in recent years.

Sen. Doris Turner, who’s known the Massey family most of her life, said the Commission began as an attempt to channel community grief into action after Sonya’s 2024 murder.

Working in tandem with Sangamon County Board Chair Andy Van Meter, Turner served as co-architect of the Massey Commission and began a multi-year process of understanding mental health shortcomings locally.

“It has really been an opportunity for many diverse voices in this community to come together and say how we can move forward,” said Turner, “how we can be better.”

Turner, who has been living in the same Springfield neighborhood as the Massey family since 1982, said one of the first recommendations to emerge from the early stages of community grieving was the call to create a 708 mental health board – to use policy and government to acknowledge the pain, begin healing and address the issues. Turner says the commission was also designed to give residents a constructive outlet for strong emotions following the shooting.

“We saw it in the rallies, the marches, the protests, on social media and in conversations,” Turner said. “We thought if we bring together diverse voices, we can look at the systems in a real way and address the systemic issues embedded within them. It wasn’t easy work, but it was necessary work. And I believe we have a very good roadmap on how to move forward.”

The Massey Commission, which ran from September 2024 and spent until December 2025 gathering testimony and examining structural deficiencies, was a deeply personal affair for Turner. It underscored not only her professional duty or the need for something more to address systemic pitfalls she’s seen in her community all her life – it was part of the way Turner herself found what she calls a “measure of grace” in the aftermath of a tragedy that received international attention, but which hit too close to home. For her, she said the work was not abstract policy debate.

“As a matter of fact, said Turner, “just a few days before Sonya was murdered, she was sitting on my front porch.”

System Gaps and Local Funding

Members of the SCMHC, which first met in April 2025 to take over the work of the Massey Commission, say the new proposal is rooted in broader challenges – what the SCMHC report calls “mental health service gaps” – in how mental health care is funded nationwide.

SCMHC member Dr. Kari Wolf, who serves as professor and chair of psychiatry at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, said the larger problems were financial and structural.

“Mental health is underfunded and funded separately from the rest of the health care delivery system, and that’s a national problem,” Wolf said. “Without that supplemental funding, communities just aren’t able to meet the mental health and substance use needs of their residents.”

Wolf said the impact of that realization has forced counties and municipalities to rely on supplemental local funding because traditional revenue streams do not adequately support services. Wolf says that impact needs to extend beyond crisis response and into everyday conditions such as depression and anxiety.

“These are highly treatable conditions,” she says, “but mental health care has historically been carved out of the broader health system, and that leaves gaps in access and outreach.”

Wolf said that currently many individuals and their families are suffering in silence. “Part of what a mental health board can do is support services for people who may never reach crisis but are still profoundly struggling,” says Wolf.

Funding and Local Perspective

While much of the public debate has centered on crisis response and law enforcement, the commission’s final report emphasizes the scale of need.

Through their analysis of statewide prevalence rates from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the SCMHC report estimates Sangamon County likely has roughly 7,800 adults suffering with serious mental illness, 28,000 with a substance use disorder and more than 12,000 with cooccurring mental illness and substance use challenges.

Local survey data reflects similar strain. A 2024 community health needs assessment (noted in the report) found more than one in 10 residents reported 14 or more “poor” mental health days in the previous month. More than half reported mental illness in their household, and nearly 55% said people with mental health challenges are not receiving adequate care.

The report further notes how the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s county health rankings describe a contradiction in the mental health services data and demography of Sangamon County. Although Sangamon performs worse than the state average in overall health outcomes, the underlying conditions – like access to health care, employment, education and housing – are superseding the state average.

For Jim Birge, manager of the Sangamon County Farm Bureau, the need is clear – but the funding mechanism matters.

“We know that the mental health challenges are real, and the people that are most in need of those services many times aren’t property owners, so they’re not sharing in the cost of their own. And so, a property tax puts a larger burden on a fewer smaller group of individuals.”

Birge testified before the commission and argued that a sales tax spreads the responsibility more broadly – including to visitors who come for major events.

“Well, to make that happen, we have a large contingency of people as most know that come to Sangamon County, specifically Springfield, for the state fair, for Route 66 events, for the new Sheels sports complex. The list goes on and on.”

Birge’s arguments – along with the commissions analysis of funding mechanisms for 708 boards across other state counties – helped the SCMHC settle on recommending a sales tax over a property tax.

The report also compares Sangamon County’s proposal to other Illinois counties that have already established 708 mental health boards.

Counties such as Champaign, Macon and St. Clair rely primarily on property taxes, each generating between roughly $3 million and $6.8 million annually. McHenry County, which switched to a 0.25% sales tax in 2024, reports nearly $15.7 million in annual revenue and funds 70 unique programs. Winnebago County, operating under a 0.5% sales tax, reports more than $20 million in annual revenue supporting 42 distinct programs.

All counties studied by the SCMHC implementing 708 boards rely primarily on either a dedicated property tax levy or a sales tax, though many supplement that funding with additional revenue sources.

Birge said if Sangamon voters approve the referendum and a board is formed, rural communities must remain part of the focus as well.

“Certainly, we like doing what we can to help partner and bring services to the little communities. Springfield gets such a focus and it’s where a lot of need is, obviously, but the rural communities are not without need either,” said Birge, highlighting the often overlooked mental health concerns of rural farmers.

Justice and Mental Health

The proposal has also sparked broader conversations about mental health within law enforcement. Protests surrounding Sonya Massey’s killing have continued, including recently at the county courthouse where Sean Grayson, the former deputy who shot Massey was sentenced to 20 years for second degree murder.

Springfield activist Sunshine Clemons was there and said expanding services must include officers as well as residents.

“When I was co-chair of a law enforcement working group on the Massey Commission, one of the things we pushed for was providing additional services for officers because we don’t want unhealed people coming out and trying to serve a community and then doing what they did to Sonya Massey happening again,” Clemons said. “It’s important to make sure that both the community and law enforcement have those resources. It’s not just about law enforcement. It’s not just about the community. Everyone needs holistic mental health services.”

Sangamon County Sheriff Paula Crouch, who took over in the aftermath of Massey’s murder, said the culture inside law enforcement has changed over the past 30 years.

“When I started in law enforcement 30 years ago, you didn’t talk about being depressed,” Crouch said. “If you were on antidepressants, you didn’t want anybody to find out. There was a fear you wouldn’t be able to carry your gun, and then you couldn’t be a police officer.”

Crouch says that stigma has eased, and officers are now more encouraged to seek help when needed.

“We’ve progressed into a more acceptable place where there’s no shame in going to get help,” Crouch said. “If Sean Grayson had something going on, and he knew he had something going on, he shouldn’t have been at work that day.”

Crouch said expanding partnerships between deputies and mental health professionals – including potential co-responder units and expanded services inside the jail – would strengthen crisis response.

“For me, it’s about arming my deputies with the knowledge to recognize different types of help and how to connect people to it,” she said. “That’s really where we struggle.”

Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputy David Timm, who is challenging Crouch in the March 17 primary, also supports expending mental health resources and strengthening training for deputies.

Timm said the nature of policing has changed significantly over the course of his career, noting a shift in what officers respond to most often.

“When I started, about 75 to 80% of the calls involved alcohol and drugs,” Timm said. “By the end of my career, 75 to 80% of the calls involved mental health.”

Timm said that changes are reflecting – what he believes – are broader societal shifts and reinforces the need for updated training and resources.

“We’ve had a change, and with that comes the ability to recognize it and deal with it better,” Timm said, but emphasized that any new partnerships must be implemented carefully.

“We can look at opportunities to move forward,” he said. “But we have to make sure everyone involved is properly trained and prepared.”

If voters approve the tax increase, county leaders could move forward with establishing the board, appoint members and begin agenda setting – a step supporters agree could help shape how Sangamon County responds to addresses mental health for decades to come.