With the House expected to unveil its budget Friday, the chamber’s Democrats are working to make their voices heard before the funds are divvied up.
Florida ranks among the bottom states when it comes to spending on mental healthcare. And while Florida Gov. Rick Scott has included $19-million in healthcare spending in his proposed budget, Candy Crawford. CEO of the Mental Health Association of Central Florida, says that’s not enough.
“The $19-million of peanuts that the governor has thrown at us for mental health, doesn’t even put us past the 50th level in Florida. That’s one dollar more. We’re at $37 per person and now we’re going to $38 dollars per person. That still keep us at number 50."
Crawford says if Florida wants to see a real change, it needs to make a real commitment. And she says there are clear examples to follow.
“Thirty six of the States in the U.S. decided to make mental health a priority in the 2013 session. The state of Texas appropriated out of general revenue an additional $256-million just that year to address the needs in Texas. I don’t often think that Texas does anything better than Florida. But they did address it. They did make a difference and they did appropriate real dollars,” Crawford says.
Rep. Lori Berman (D-Lantana) says Florida’s lower mental health spending levels are leading to new problems arising in other areas of the state.
“We have problem with gun violence, we have problems with domestic violence. They’re not being addressed. And unfortunately our jails are our number one mental health provider in the state and that’s not the way it should be in this state,” Berman says.
Berman says the democratic caucus and other members of the legislature are working toward solutions.
“Rep. [Charles] McBurney (R-Jacksonville) has a bill to talk about mental health courts. And that’s really important that we could have some diversion programs and get people treatment and keep them out of the jail system. And that bill is moving forward. Representative [Kathleen] Peters (D-Treasure Island) has a bill about workforce because she is very concerned that we don’t’ have the doctors and nurses and physicians to adequately address the problem,” Berman says.
Berman says just talking about the bills is making positive change, because it’s helping to remove some of the stigma associated with mental illness, but she says for real change those measures must not only get passed, but also get funded. And while House minority leader Mark Pafford (D-West Palm Beach) says that’s something he’d like to see happen, he says getting the money needed for mental health projects is difficult and becomes harder once the general framework for the budget has been cemented in place. To give an example Pafford uses two pieces of paper placed on the table in front of him.
“This little piece of paper represents mental health and healthcare funding, this is environment and let’s say that this is DOT. One the floor we’ll only be able to reach into this pot of money to deal with mental health. So if we did that we’d probably be taking something away from babies or perhaps lengthening frail elders on waitlists. There’s already 10s of thousands. We won’t be able to look into DOT’ s budget and say, ‘gosh, maybe they don’t need 10,000 palm trees against a brand new highway this year. Maybe we can allocate that toward a healthcare subject,’” Pafford says.
And since once the budget framework is made, money can’t be moved from one pot, like transportation, or economic development to another like healthcare, Pafford says he’s hoping to make his concerns heard now.
“Having this press conference right now, talking about this really, really important subject, knowing this will be seen throughout the Capitol, in the speaker office, in the Senate’s office and in the governor’s office. You know, here’s an opportunity before anything is unveiled, maybe to add $4.7-million, maybe to reconsider where some of those corporate breaks are going to go,” Pafford says.
And Pafford says he and other Democrats will use options like amendments and debate later when the items come up on the floor.
