McLean County has created millions since signing an intergovernmental agreement with Bloomington and Normal in 2016, imposing a 1% sales tax on the city and town for mental health and public safety purposes over the next 30 years.
Elected officials convened the county due to lack of transparency related to the fund. County officials argue that the balance of funds and spending is by no means a secret. The county spent about $15.8 million of the fund between 2016 and 2024, with a balance of about $19 million, according to a recent estimate from county manager Kathy Taylor that it provided data to WGLT on request.
While that may seem like a massive reserve, Taylor said only about $4 million hasn’t been saved due to mental health-specific programs and initiatives. The rest will be kept for jail debt payments and overhauling multi-million dollar databases, improving the way the county tracks people who frequently interact with law enforcement and hospitals.
“Outside the county, someone might say, ‘Wow, they’re not spending their money on mental health,'” Taylor said. “We absolutely have that money plan, that means we are financially responsible and we are using the funds in the right order.”
Breakdown of spending
WGLT requested a spreadsheet detailing four bucket spending outlined in the Shared Sales Tax Fund, including prison debt, criminal justice needs, an integrated judicial system database and mental health initiatives. Data shows that the majority of the funds (millions) are directed towards repaying prison debt. As part of the fund’s creation, local governments have agreed to invest $1.1 million per year in services starting in 2017. Approximately $5.6 million has been spent on the criminal justice system, under $5.2 million on behavioral health, and about $535,000 heads towards database projects.
Expenditures did not begin until a year of creation of funds when money was available. Spending on mental health services came in 2019, with the majority of that bucket (approximately $3.5 million) directed towards employee expenses for the Department of Behavioral Health.
Approximately $1 million is made to community partners for money directly spent on non-county initiatives to treat community mental health. In 2023, the Department of Community Education opened Bridge Academy, and the McLean County Human Services Center took over the Triage Center and rebranded it as behavioral health emergency care. In 2024, YWCA Stepping Stones and Lifetime Access received grants to support operations and services expansion.
Success is difficult to measure
Marita Landress is the director of behavioral health coordination for the county. Landreth said on face value, the money spent on community initiatives to improve mental health outcomes appears to be low, compared to the overall amount — but their concerns and stakeholder concerns are about the impact of services. Expenses are always not an indicator of progress, Landless said.
The county still doesn’t understand the best way to measure program success. As long as the Mental Health and Public Safety Fund existed, that was about a goal, but Landless said it wasn’t easy in behavioral health.
“Back in investment is not as clean as a really standard business where you spend money on getting your products. Because at this point we’re talking about the human system. We’re talking about healthcare, so we’re talking about long-term investments.
To some extent, Landless said the public must trust that the government and the community healthcare leaders it consults with are acting in their best interests.
“Especially at this point in the game,” Landress said. “As we get a behavioral health, emergency care is the service we need and for now it’s only one of the services we have.”
Without trust, Landless said it would be nearly impossible to advance MacLean County’s current behavioral health network. The work is underway and it is systematic that it works, she added.
Improved transparency
At the same time, she said she agreed that there are some issues or at least inconsistent sharing information about the fund with the entire community.
Kevin McCarthy, a regular town council member and self-proclaimed “steward” of the town’s sales tax fund, said that counties, Bloomington and Normal are at the forefront of behavioral health and there is no clear way to report it to the public.
Furthermore, he said these are three different institutions with their own strategies and methods to maintain financial information, trying to access the same page. In his experience, McCarthy said there was not much detail about the county’s cost report. But McCarthy said the public is not seeking data in a form the county has not yet maintained.
“Frankly, no one has asked for it, no one has asked for it. [more detail]He said. “So I don’t know there’s a problem with transparency. …What makes sense to us to make it public in a form that is easy for the public to digest?”
Jeffrey Smadde
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WGLT File
Landreth said that perhaps part of the reason there was no clear or detailed information sharing process was because there was a lot of staff leaving, even in their roles. Landreth became director of behavioral health coordination in 2024 and is the fourth person to hold the position.
That made even Landless’s learning about tax history difficult, but they said there’s still a good job being done without accurate data to show it.
“I want to make sure that we have high standards of care that we provide to people, and that people know that we are very thoughtful about how the money will be spent, especially with the decisions we make in the future,” Landless said.
Spending $4 million in reserves for Behavioral Health Initiatives has been a recent priority for the newly formed advisory board, which recommends county commissions on spending budgets for the Mental Health and Public Safety Fund. This year, the county is budgeting for reservations. Landless said it was about hitting the balance.
“Make sure we’re not sitting in the money and spending the reserves in a steady way, and again, make sure it’s been fully spent,” Landless said.
Reasons for the reserve
Regarding $12 million preparation for an integrated judicial information system [IJIS] Database update, Taylor said the county was intentionally putting money aside. The forecast cost is approximately $30 million. Taylor said the county also has the American rescue plan law. [ARPA] Dollars from the Covid-19 pandemic had to be spent on deadlines compliant with federal restrictions.
“Common Sales Tax dollars do not have an expiration date,” Taylor said to explain why the reserves were so high. “ARPA dollars do that.”
By the time the current intergovernmental agreement expires in 2036, Taylor said he hopes the fund will balance zero-sum. Taylor said there is always a possibility that the contract will get an extension, but he’s probably talking about it for at least another decade.
In the meantime, Taylor, McCarthy and Landless all said they are focused on completing the system to provide the best possible care to the community and improve overall behavioral health outcomes. Landless said he hopes the public understands this.
“Obviously we have a long way to go,” Landress said. “As long as the service progresses, there are a lot of gaps people can talk about, but the amount of collaboration between private and public institutions is extremely difficult to find in many other communities.”
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