October 2, 2017
By Paragon News Director Paul Joseph –
A last minute budget agreement may help save the mental health care system in Western Oklahoma.
Governor Mary Fallin, Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Schulz and House Speaker Charles McCall today reached an agreement adjusting the 2018 fiscal year budget that, among other things, helps fill the $215 million budget hole and puts Oklahoma on a more stable budget path, as well as provides a needed teacher pay raise.
If passed by the Legislature, the agreement would:
* Place a $1.50 tax on a package of cigarettes.
* Provide for a 6-cent fuel tax increase.
* Revise taxes on alcoholic beverages.
* Restore the Earned Income Tax credit.
* Provide for a $3,000 teacher pay increase, effective Aug. 1, 2018.
* Provide for a $1,000 increase for state employees, effective Aug. 1, 2018. It does not pertain to higher education, legislators or constitutional officers, such as statewide elected officials and judges.
Last week – before this latest agreement was announced – the situation had become dire.
The director of the agency that provides mental health and substance abuse services said outpatient programs to 189,000 Oklahomans would be eliminated and other services will be cut on Nov. 1 due to a state budget gap that’s forcing a $75 million cut to the agency’s budget.
Commissioner Terri White of the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse S ervices said last Wednesday the agency would have had to cut its budget if state lawmakers didn’t fill a $215 million hole in the state budget.
Late last week, before this morning’s latest announcement, Beckham County’s Associate District Judge Michelle Kirby-Roper told Paragon News how impacting the cuts ordered by the state would have affected Western Oklahoma.
If the latest budget agreement isn’t adopted into the budget, the impacts will be felt deeply.
In a news release, the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services said last week that the agency would have no choice but to announce plans for cuts that must be initiated in November, and fully implemented during December and January.
The department said they’d delayed this action as long as possible; however, they were to initiate processes the first week of November to meet the shortfall that begins in December.
Judge Michelle Kirby-Roper says the latest agreement still has a long way to go to get adopted and worries what happens if they don’t forcing cuts in mental health and substance abuse programs.
Kirby-Roper says mental health care providers are better able to handle drastic budget cuts in larger, metropolitan areas of the state.
Commissioner White said in last week’s release that law enforcement agencies were already predicting an uptick in jail population and crime, as treatment providers close their doors and behavioral health services are no longer available.
All of these negative consequences will be more costly than simply funding these services, in terms of lives and dollars.
There’s been no word, yet, that the agreement has moved forward in the special session of the legislature, but with the three leaders voicing they’re agreement, perhaps an announcement will soon be made, however, it’s unclear if there is enough support to pass the plan.
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