Inslee Intros WA Mental Health Reform Plan

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) unveiled a $675 million proposal to dramatically reshape how patients in the Evergreen State’s mental health system are cared for.

 

Inslee’s plan calls for hundreds of new community mental-health beds and the creation of a first-of-its-kind partnership with the University of Washington to establish a new teaching hospital focused on behavioral health. It would also address an ongoing worker shortage by committing $4 million to developing more mental-health workers by creating a new state-funded scholarship program for students who agree to work in high-demand behavioral health fields at state hospitals and community sites.

 

Other tenets include funding long-term housing options and tailoring treatment for patients who don’t need 24-hour supervision or care.

 

“We know we need to transform our mental-health-care system,” Inslee said during a news conference announcing the proposal. “For too long, we’ve had too long of a line of people who need to get into the door of mental-health-care treatment.”

 

The Washington mental health system has been the subject of numerous court orders and lawsuits in recent years, including for keeping patients in emergency rooms and other inappropriate settings without proper treatment because of a lack of bed space, or in jail for extended periods of time awaiting mental competency evaluations.

 

The state’s largest mental health facility, Western State Hospital, has also been cited several times by federal officials for lackluster patient safety and care standards. Thigs got so bad that the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services this year decertified the facility, costing the state more than $50 million in federal funding.

 

Under Inslee’s proposal, some patients from both Western State and Eastern State hospitals would be moved to new community beds.

 

Because federal law bars reimbursing for treatment at community facilities with more than 16 beds, Inslee has historically favored smaller sites that stay within that limit. But Inslee cited a recent offering from the Trump administration to allow states to request a waiver from the law, which he said could facilitate building the larger facilities the state needs.

 

The next hurdles will be convincing lawmakers to endorse the necessary funding and local communities to embrace having the facilities in their neighborhoods. Inslee acknowledged that the latter might be the harder of the two.

 

“We’re going to need to talk to neighborhoods and communities to make sure they’re comfortable with those provisions,” he said. (SEATTLE TIMES, LEWISTON TRIBUNE, WASHINGTON GOVERNOR’S OFFCE)

New AL AG Reveals Gov Under Investigation

Just days after Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) named Steve Marshall to replace Luther Strange as State Attorney General, Marshall confirmed what had long only been rumored: that Bentley is under criminal investigation by the AG’s office. Ironically, Marshall confirmed the investigation so he could recuse himself from leading the process. Bentley is facing impeachment resolutions from lawmakers over allegations that he misused public funds while carrying on an extramarital affair with one of his aides. (ATLANTIC)

Gone to the Goats

With wildfires having wreaked so much devastation in the last few years, more rural California towns are looking at warding off such blazes by clearing the brush and other fuels that feed them. One option gaining popularity is as old as time, and purely organic to boot – goats! Yes, as the Los Angeles Times reports, the tiny Sierra town of Nevada City (population 3,100) is looking to employ herds of goats to clear excess vegetation from hundreds of acres of city-owned land. The total cost, however, might be problematic. So city leaders have started a GoFundMe campaign to raise the $30K it will take to bring the goats to bear...so to speak.

FCC Funding Spurs Dispute Between States and Cell Phone Carriers

Last year the Federal Communication Commission offered $4.5 billion in funding over the next 10 years to help states provide high-speed mobile broadband service in underserved rural areas.

 

Cell phone carriers informed the FCC that several states, including Kansas, Mississippi, New Hampshire and Vermont, were already well covered with high-speed broadband, making the states ineligible for the FCC’s Mobility Fund Phase II (MF-II) reverse auction money.

 

The states disagreed.

 

“When we first looked at the confidential coverage maps we called the FCC staff and said, ‘These maps are wrong,’” said Corey Chase, telecommunications infrastructure specialist for Vermont’s Department of Public Service.

 

He said the FCC told them, “Well, if you don’t think they’re accurate, it would behoove you to do a challenge.”

 

That advice resulted in scores of contractors and volunteers crisscrossing multiple states doing a rendition of the “Can you hear me now?” line from the Verizon ad and, ultimately, in the filing of several state challenges with the FCC.

 

In response to those challenges, the FCC suspended its MF-II program last month so it could investigate whether one or more of the major carriers had violated its auction mapping rules. The accuracy of that data is not only key for determining state eligibility for MF-II funding but also a “public safety issue,” according to Ryan Brown, a deputy commissioner for Mississippi’s Public Service Commission.

 

“We’ve had folks who have been in car wrecks and haven’t been able to call 911; we’ve had elderly people who have fallen and can’t get a signal to call an ambulance,” he said. “Lives are at stake in this matter too.” (STATELINE, FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION)

Politics in Brief - January 28 2019

RECORD NUMBER OF ETHICS COMPLAINTS IN AK ELECTIONS LAST YEAR

The ARKANSAS Ethics Commission received 146 citizen complaints against candidates and others during last year’s election cycle. That number was a new record and a 45 percent increase from 2012. (ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE)

 

KS LEGISLATURE ALLOWS UNRECORDED VOTES

Despite a push for greater transparency in KANSAS state government, both chambers of the Legislature allow unrecorded votes on bills in committee. Unrecorded votes are also allowed on amendments to bills before the full chambers, although final votes always get recorded. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

 

PUSH FOR MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION IN MN

MINNESOTA Rep. Mike Freiberg (D) and Sen. Melisa Franzen (D) are working on legislation to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Rep. Raymond Dehn (D) is aiming, instead, to put the issue before the state’s voters as a constitutional amendment in 2020, which would still require the approval of both the DFL-controlled House and the Republican-led Senate first. (MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)

 

-- Compiled by KOREY CLARK