Sometimes life around here resembles the storyline of an antidepressant ad.

In fall 2005, Spokane County’s mental health system sounded as irrational in news stories as the mental disorders it was designed to treat. It had fallen into chaos. Readers discovered the county was paying exorbitant fines to the state for hospitalizing too many patients at Eastern State Hospital, a $7.5 million shortfall required agencies to cut programs and lay off staff in huge numbers, and the bad news just kept coming.

The problems stemmed from more than one source. Federal spending regulations tightened, cutting off money for Spokane County, poor management decisions were made, and the state couldn’t act quickly to help.

But in November 2005, local voters approved a 1 percent sales tax for county mental health programs. Beginning in December 2005, that tax quickly helped turn things around.

The tax was projected to raise at least $6 million in its first year, but it generated about $7.5 million instead.

And suddenly it was as though the entire system had begun swallowing Prozac. Administrators took positive action.

Now, new intervention programs help prevent people with mental illness from winding up in crises. Fewer people land in psychiatric hospitals, and now more money pays for treatment rather than fines. Spokane County spent about $1 million in 2005 on those penalties, but that figure dwindled to about $4,000 in the first half of this year.

In addition, the state Legislature helped offset shrinking federal dollars, and the state canceled $300,000 of the county’s fines.

Agencies began to hire back staff, new programs were added, and the county Regional Service Network rebuilt its reserve funds.

Like the scene in an antidepressant ad, the sun began to shine again in this system, and new fiscal health and creativity blossomed.

None of that would have happened if county commissioners, particularly Chairman Mark Richard, had not advocated for this tax, and if voters had not believed it was the right thing to do.

Even in an anti-government era, this community knew we’d miss those dimes far less than we missed living in a community that cared well for its mentally ill.

Certain carefully designed local taxes, we’ve learned, have the power to lift depression for us all.