Otter’s budget criticized

BOISE – A battle is brewing between legislators and Gov. Butch Otter, after Otter recommended no funding at all in his budget for substance abuse services now being covered by a soon-to-expire federal grant.

Lawmakers from throughout the state have been working on the substance abuse issue for several years, and a joint committee that met over the summer has extensive recommendations for expansion of the state’s efforts in that area.

“We’ve had a number of legislators meeting all summer long, trying to come up with solutions regarding mental health treatment and substance abuse treatment,” said Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert. “And yet the governor’s budget seems to go backward from last year’s effort.”

Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, the Senate Finance vice-chair, said, “It’s critically important.” With treatment, she said, “We have seen that the results are tremendous. If we’re concerned about building prisons and the money that takes away from other areas like education, we need to pay attention to the success we’ve seen from our substance abuse efforts and fully fund those.”

The state Health and Welfare Department requested $6.5 million in next year’s budget, and 33 new positions, to replace the federal Access to Recovery grant that’s funded contracted substance abuse treatment services in Idaho for the past three years. The agency also asked for an additional $6 million and 14 more positions to expand those services.

Otter didn’t recommend a penny for either request.

“He does have an understanding of the need for some attention to the substance abuse issue,” Sara Nye, a budget analyst for the governor, told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Tuesday morning. She noted that he recommended $865,000 for a detox center in Boise as part of his budget and that he’s keeping the “drug czar” position created by former Gov. Jim Risch as part of his administration.

Cameron noted that Otter’s budget calls for millions in contingency funds for state construction projects. “I just don’t think substance abuse is one of those things we want to go backward on,” Cameron said. “In my mind, it’s more important than having a contingency fund for construction projects and some of those other things.”

Methamphetamine abuse has been particularly costly for the state, Health and Welfare officials told lawmakers, even though only 1.2 percent of the population uses the drug. In Idaho’s prisons, more than half the inmates are addicted to meth, said Kathleen Allyn, behavioral health division administrator. Abuse of the drug by parents also has contributed to the state’s growing child protection and foster care caseloads, she said.

Otter’s drug czar, former state Rep. Debbie Field, said she’s very aware of the need for more substance abuse treatment in Idaho. “This is a huge problem, and I’m not a stranger to it,” said Field, former chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Field said she wants the state to pursue only the most effective approaches to treatment, and she questioned how successful Health and Welfare has been with its grant-funded program. “It’s good to talk about what’s working, because there are so many components that aren’t, and we can’t continue to fund the things that aren’t,” she said.

Field said she’s looking to Idaho’s drug courts as a successful model for how to provide treatment.

“I’m not afraid to make people uncomfortable and rock the boat a little,” Field said. “With what we’re dealing with right now, we have to rock the boat.”

Field, who’s been on the job just a week, said the new governor still needs to “come up to speed on where we’re at” on the issue, and she said he’ll be open to considering some funding.

Keough said she hopes so, and noted that Otter said in his State of the State message that his door is open to legislators and their ideas. “I would hope … this would be one of the cases where the door’s open,” she said.

Lawmakers got their first look at budgets for Health and Welfare, the state’s largest agency, on Tuesday. The first two divisions that they examined were mental health and substance abuse services. The governor’s recommendation for mental health reflects a 10 percent increase in state general funds and an 8 percent increase overall, while his recommendation for substance abuse services shows a 0.3 percent drop in state general funds and a 26 percent drop overall, in part because of the loss of the federal grant.

Health and Welfare officials said they’re applying to the federal government for permission to carry over $2 million to $3 million from the grant into the next fiscal year, which could allow services to continue through September.

Health and Welfare Director Dick Armstrong, who gave lawmakers an overview of the detailed agency budgets from his department that they’ll be examining all week, said substance abuse has been a focus for the department through its new Division of Behavioral Health, which then-Gov. Risch created when he reorganized the department in June. That’s also when Risch appointed Armstrong, a longtime Blue Cross of Idaho executive.

“Substance abuse is a tough disease,” Armstrong told the panel. “It is a chronic, life-long disease that we need to treat as a disease. Our program is right at the national average for success – about 40 percent of people successfully complete the program the first time.”

That may not sound great, he said, but he told lawmakers it’s worth going after anyway because “substance abuse is the root cause for many of the serious issues we are trying to deal with.”