Whatcom County Council members should reject calls for a sales tax increase.

This is the worst time in years for a tax increase. Gas prices are at an all-time high. Food prices are rising locally and internationally. Housing sales have slowed, increasing homeowner concerns about taxes on properties they cannot sell as easily as before.

Yet some advocates are urging the county to take advantage of a 2005 state law that allows counties to raise sales taxes one-tenth of 1 percent to pay for mental-health and substance-abuse programs. Eight Washington counties have enacted the tax, including King and Spokane counties.

Earlier this month, the county’s Mental Health Advisory Board voted to ask the Whatcom County Council to approve the tax, and to do so without a vote of the citizens.

Advocates say the money is desperately needed to fight the plague of drug addiction and to offer services to the mentally ill in our communities. County jail officials estimate, for example, that about 90 percent of people booked into jail are under the influence of drugs, alcohol or both. About 19 percent of the jail population have serious mental illnesses, they say.

Those officials and other advocates say there is not enough money in the system to get help for those people. Getting more money would decrease the potential for re-offenses and ease the county’s overcrowded justice system, they say.

The county’s 2007 budget includes about $2 million for substance-abuse and mental-health programs, and another $8.6 million comes through the county in the form of state and federal grants that are passed on to local service providers.

A new tax would raise somewhere between $2 million and $3 million more toward the effort.

We believe in the general concept that prevention and assistance is cheaper than justice and jail. Our objections have nothing to do with the merits of such programs.

Our objections are about the need to raise taxes on an already hurting community. Bellingham Food Bank, for example, reports that spikes in the cost of living due to food and gas prices are causing more people to come seeking food assistance than ever before. You should not add government expenses to an already strained economic system.

Voters agree, having rejected school bond measures throughout the county this spring. And Whatcom County citizens already contribute 8.4 cents for every $1 they spend in sales tax.

County government must operate more like a household and prioritize its spending. If County Council members agree it is necessary to spend $2 million more to fund mental-health and substance abuse programs, then the county must get that $2 million from its regular budget, cutting spending on something else.

It’s a question of priorities. If this is a priority in our community, and it seems it should be, then other things must move down the list.

The county will begin working on its 2009 budget this summer. It is in those discussions that the need for increased funds for mental-health and substance abuse programs should take place.

There has been some debate among County Council members about putting a tax-increase proposal on a ballot for a vote by citizens. That step is unnecessary.

We believe in strong leadership from our elected officials and salute those willing to stand up and make tough decisions. In this case, the County Council should reject a sales tax increase and immediately open discussion about budget priorities to see whether more funding for mentalhealth and substance-abuse programs is needed.