The DeKalb County Mental Health Board voted Monday to support the Public Safety sales tax referendum that is up for a March 16 vote.

The referendum would finance an expansion of the DeKalb County Jail.

Planning by the DeKalb County Board has marked an initial $1.2 million to form a mental health program intended to keep mentally ill people out of the county jail system and provide themwith treatment.

Dennis Sands, a DeKalb County Board chairman, asked for the board’s support of the referendum.

“In my 20 years as a police officer, I took a lot of people to jail who shouldn’t have gone there,” Sands said.“If we can stop them from getting there, we can make our jail last a lot longer.”

The program could reduce demand for beds in the jail by 18. With other reduction programs in the proposal, it could reduce demand by 53 beds, according to the DeKalb County Jail study released Aug. 20, 2003.

People would be able to enter the programs on a volunteer basis, and some in the judicial system may be required to take part in the programs, Sands said. Judges could require people to seek treatment in the program.

Though the county mental health board would not oversee the funding of the project, the referendum is in the interest of the board, executive board member Jerry Lane said.

The program would take the burden off other mental health facilities in the county and give the mentally ill a chance to be treated instead of locked up, he said.

“It makes so much sense. It’s the right way to do it – the humane way to do it – and it’s cheaper for taxpayers,” Lane said.

The referendum would levy a one-half percent sales tax on goods sold in the county, excluding automobiles, farm machinery, food and medicine.

Unlike a property tax, the sales tax would pass part of the burden onto people who don’t necessarily live in the county, but who do business here, Sands said.

“If you’re an NIU student and you shop in DeKalb or Sycamore, you’ll help pay for it,” Sands said.

The single dissenting vote came from board member Mary Petruchius. Petruchius said she could not make an informed decision and would like to research the matter more fully before she decides.

The DeKalb County Mental Health Board distributes roughly $1.3 million in county tax dollars to 12 groups in the county that provide public mental health services.