PORT TOWNSEND — Lives are going to be lost in Jefferson County without additional funding to expand chemical dependency, mental health treatment services and drug court programs.

So said Laurie Strong, Jefferson Mental Health executive director, who asked Jefferson County commissioners on Monday to support a one-tenth of 1 percent sales and excise tax increase as a funding source.

Such a tax increase would boost county revenues by about $200,000 annually for such programs.

“Throwing them in jail isn’t a very good solution,” said Strong, who was joined by Ford Kessler, the county’s alcoholism and drug addiction program coordinator.

She said the law enforcement community is highly supportive of such a proposal, which would cost consumers about 1 cent out of every $10 spent on retail purchases.

“All law enforcement has clearly stated that if mental illness problems went away, that would cut their load by half,” she said.

Both Strong and Kessler agree that expanding the county’s drug court program is necessary with drug use, alcoholism and mental health cases growing with the population.

Drug Court graduates

Jefferson County’s Drug Court is in its third year and has 52 participants, five of whom have graduated.

Instead of approving the sales and use tax increase proposal outright, the commissioners on Monday set an 11:45 a.m. Sept. 26 public hearing on the matter in the commissioners chamber in Jefferson County Courthouse, 1820 Jefferson St., Port Townsend.

The county commissioners have the option of automatically approving the tax increase or putting it to voters.