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)

States To Take Financial Hit From Trump Border Wall Action

President Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border could collectively cost states, the District Columbia and two U.S. territories as much as $6 billion in federal military construction and National Guard funding.

 

California, Hawaii and Maryland stand to take the biggest funding hits, $896 million, $550 million and $362 million, respectively. All three of those states are among the 16 that have filed a federal lawsuit to block the border wall action (see Spotlight and Bird’s Eye View).

 

“If the president is essentially stealing money that’s been allocated to go to the various states for various purposes but no longer will, we’re being harmed, our people are being harmed,” said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra when the lawsuit was announced. (GOVERNING)

Citizen-Initiated Legislation Altered by MI Senate

Last week the Michigan Senate voted largely along party lines to make significant changes to citizen-initiated measures raising the state’s minimum wage from $9.25 to $12 per hour (SB 1171) and requiring paid sick leave (SB 1175).

 

The Republican-controlled Legislature adopted the two measures in September, keeping them off the Nov. 6 ballot and also making them easier to amend.

 

The changes to the minimum wage measure approved by the Senate would extend the phase-in of the increase by eight years, to 2030 instead of 2022, and cap the wage for tipped restaurant workers at $4 per hour instead of increasing it to $12. The amended sick leave measure would exempt businesses with less than 40 employees and cut the minimum number of hours employers would have to provide from 72 per year to 36.

 

Michigan’s Constitution grants the Legislature the power to either adopt initiated legislation or allow it to go on the ballot. And Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof (R) said as much.

 

“The voters know when they sign a petition that it comes before the Legislature before anything happens to it,” he said.

 

He also said business owners had urged modifications to the legislation to “make sure Michigan continues on its economic progress.”

 

But adopting and amending citizen-initiated legislation in the same two-year session is reportedly unprecedented and potentially unconstitutional. And Democrats decried the timing of the move, in a “lame-duck session” before Gov.-elect Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, takes office in January.

 

“I think one of the most troubling things is they dropped the bills the day after the election,” said Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich (D). “So obviously they had these bills in the works all summer long and didn’t have the courage to show the voters what they were planning on doing.”

 

The bills could be taken up by the House this week. (DETROIT FREE PRESS, DETROIT NEWS, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)

Budgets in Brief - December 3 2018

AK FACING BIG CLIMATE-CHANGE COSTS

ALASKA is facing some of the country’s most extreme climate changes, including coastal erosion and road damage, according to the federal climate report released last month. The report estimated that the climate-related damage could cost the state $110 million to $270 million a year. (ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS)

 

OR GOV CALLS FOR BIG BOOST IN EDUCATION FUNDING

A policy and fiscal agenda for the next two years issued by OREGON Gov. Kate Brown (D) last week indicated that her main focus over the next six months will be on negotiating a major tax increase for public education. She said more than $2 billion would be required to improve K-12 schools, cover soaring public pension debt and prevent cuts to higher education, but she didn’t offer any specifics about how to generate that revenue. (OREGONIAN [PORTLAND], LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)

 

OR POTENTIALLY FACING $623M DEFICIT

OREGON budget analysts are projecting general fund and lottery revenues in the state could total $23.6 billion from 2019 to 2021, a 5 percent increase over current levels. But they also say the state could face a $623 million deficit, due largely to rising Medicaid and education costs. (OREGONIAN [PORTLAND])

 

OR COULD GAIN $376M FROM CRACKDOWN ON OFFSHORE TAX AVOIDANCE

Reinstating a state law abandoned in the 1980s requiring the complete reporting of corporate profits could net OREGON $376 million more in revenue, according to a report from the Oregon Center for Public Policy. The OCPP said the law would make it harder for multinational corporations to shield their profits from state taxes. (WORLDLINK.COM)

 

OH BUSINESS TAX BREAKS MEANT FOR POOR GOING TO WEALTHY

Policy Matters OHIO, a liberal think tank, says the state’s business income-tax deduction, which allows tens of thousands of businesses to avoid paying state income taxes, is also letting wealthier taxpayers qualify for tax credits intended for low-income residents. Policy Matters opposes the business tax exemption in general, noting that 43 percent of it goes to 7 percent of business filers in the state who earn $200,000 or more in income. (COLUMBUS DISPATCH)

 

-- Compiled by KOREY CLARK

Hogan Creates ‘Emergency’ MD Redistricting Commission

Citing a court ruling that declared the state’s 6^th Congressional District to be illegally gerrymandered, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) created a nine-member commission tasked with taking politics out of drawing the district’s lines.

 

The executive order Hogan issued calls for the commission to be comprised of three Democrats, three Republicans and three independents. It comes in response to a ruling by the U.S. District Court in Baltimore last month that gave the state until March 7^th to submit a new map to be used for the 2020 election.

 

Hogan’s directive also comes in spite of a legal challenge to the court’s ruling by state attorney general Brian Frosh (D). The governor decried that challenge, saying Frosh is “on the wrong side of this fight and on the wrong side of history” by not looking to rectify a situation he called “an embarrassment” for the state.

 

“Actions like these are exactly why Marylanders are fed up with politics as usual,” he said.

 

At question are lines drawn by majority Democrats after the 2010 elections that moved a large number of Democratic voters from a party stronghold in Montgomery County into the 6^th District and a large block of Republican voters into the 8^th District, ensuring Dems would dominate both districts. The plan was an immediate success: in the very next election in 2012, Democratic challenger John Delaney defeated longtime 6^th District Republican Rep. Roscoe Bartlett.

 

It is not clear if redrawing the 6^th and 8^th districts alone would satisfy the court order, though the judges have said they would consider new maps that addressed just those districts prior to 2020, with a statewide effort being nudged to 2022.

 

Hogan said he would also make another attempt to permanently hand over the drawing of district lines to an independent commission. The governor has introduced legislation multiple times, but none has received a vote from lawmakers. Even so, he expressed optimism that increasing attention to partisan gerrymandering around the country will move lawmakers to take a new proposal more seriously.

 

“I don’t have any magic ball to say people in the legislature can change their mind and finally do the right thing,” Hogan said. “We’re going to continue to push for an open and transparent process that comes up with fair districts.” (WASHINGTON POST, BALTIMORE SUN)