KTVQ

Posted: Feb 28, 2010 5:47 PM
Updated: Feb 28, 2010 7:57 PM

BILLINGS - This week Yellowstone County Commissioners plan to discuss the option of  a mill levy to help fund mental health services.
  The $873,321.60 perpetual levy would add 3.2 mills to property taxes.
  A homeowner with a $100,000 home would pay $4.90 more a year in taxes.
  Most of the tax revenue would fund the Community Crisis Center on North 30th Street.
  A portion of the money would also go to the HUB.
  Supporters of the levy says funding these agencies will help decrease population at the jail, decrease the amount of Medicaid payments at emergency rooms and free up officers.
"The officers working with the folks on the street are able to be in and out and back on the street in 20 minutes to half an hour instead of being in an emergency room for half an hour," said Bill Kennedy, Yellowstone County Commissioner.
"It gives them another solution as to where to bring people because the hospitals aren't always an appropriate solution," said Mar Cee Neary, directory of the Community Crisis Center. " We don't always have people that need immediate medical care."
   On Tuesday, commissioners will vote on whether to hold a public hearing on the mill levy. If passed that hearing will be held on March 23rd.