Budget-setting: ‘Enough hurt to go around’

A trimmed-down budget for psychiatric hospitalization, showing a 9.7 percent cut in state funds and an 8 percent cut overall, has passed JFAC unanimously, while there was considerably more debate about the budget for mental health services.  “Our state has one of the highest suicide rates in the nation,” said Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise. “We really do leave people in crisis.” Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, said, “I have, in the last few weeks, met with a number of mental health providers and they have given me a list of ideas for cost savings which adds up to tens of millions of dollars in this budget. … If the department would look at those, there is the potential that this would not actually be any reduction in services.”

The budget calls for a 1.5 percent cut in state general funds and a 6.5 percent cut overall, but there’s no specific funding for any of the specific line items that both the department and governor wanted funded; instead, Health & Welfare will have to shift funding from other areas. It passed, 17-3. When LeFavour said she thought it was “highly unlikely” that the money could be found in the budget, JFAC Co-Chair Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, responded, “Well, it’s highly unlikely that the people who are out of work can pay any more taxes.” She said, “There’s enough hurt to go around on this.”