On Nov. 3, Jackson Countians have the opportunity to renew the small but important sales tax known as COMBAT for another seven years. COMBAT stands for the Community Backed Anti-Drug Tax that is unique to Jackson County.
The tax was first passed in 1989 and helped establish a quarter-cent sales tax to help with the prevention of drug-related crimes in our county. The $19.5 million per year generated from the sales tax is applied to four areas: law enforcement, prosecution, prevention and treatment.
COMBAT provides our local law enforcement agencies with the ability to swiftly close drug houses, and to arrest, prosecute and incarcerate men and women guilty of serious drug-related offenses. Since 2002, this has taken nearly $250 million in drugs off our streets, prompted 11,000 drug arrests and removed more than 3,000 killing weapons from within the county. COMBAT has assisted in the closing of 13,091 drug houses since 1991 and has increased the number of prosecutions.
Every year, COMBAT also provides funding for the popular D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program that teaches thousands of fifth grade and middle school students about the risks of drugs that weren’t around when I was growing up. According to a 2009 study by the federal Department of Health and Human Services, each $1 spent on prevention in school-based programs can save $18 in potential prosecution and treatment.
Recently, there was an article in The Kansas City Star talking about the election cost. The long-term costs associated with the criminal justice system were ignored.
A recent report by the Department of Justice, Prisons Bureau, stated the average annual cost to confine an inmate in a community corrections center for the fiscal year 2008 was $23,882, and for federal inmates it was $25,895. Every $1 invested in addiction treatment yields between $4 and $7 in savings on criminal justice costs, and if you add in health care the yield can reach $12 for every dollar, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Last year alone, COMBAT enabled 4,500 of our fellow citizens to receive professional treatment and rehabilitation for addictive drug use from one of the 80 community and faith-based agencies that receive program funding from the COMBAT tax. This includes those individuals who received deferred prosecution through our innovative Drug Court, which has a 94 percent success rate.
COMBAT helps reduce crime and enhance the quality of public safety that helps us feel safer in our community. Plus, it saves tax dollars down the road by steering offenders away from future crimes or long-term incarceration that would drive up police, court and jail costs. COMBAT works.
