Saving lives and improving public safety: Council adopts sales tax funding for mentally ill and drug dependent

Tax would expire in just under 9 years

After hearing from hundreds of speakers over the past year who urged action, the King County Council today enacted the one-tenth of one cent sales tax proposed by the County Executive to fund the strategies and programs outlined in King County’s Mental Illness and Drug Dependency Action Plan. The programs are designed to stabilize people suffering from mental illness and chemical dependency, diverting them from jails and emergency rooms by getting them proper treatment.

“The impacts of mental illness and chemical dependency touch our entire community,” said Councilmember Bob Ferguson, Operating Budget Committee chair and prime sponsor of the legislation. “This investment provides support for the forgotten and marginalized in our society.”

King County joins seven other counties in Washington state that have adopted the funding mechanism authorized by the Legislature in 2005 to fund new or expanded mental health and substance abuse treatment services and therapeutic courts. The sales tax could start locally as early as April 1, 2008, and would expire in just under nine years, on January 1, 2017. The measure will add one penny to a $10.00 purchase, and will generate approximately $54 million per year.

“This is the most comprehensive plan in decades to deal compassionately with frail and vulnerable populations and their families,” said Councilmember Jane Hague, chair of the Operating Budget Panel. “Those needs have gone unaddressed by state and federal governments. With this legislation, we are meeting those needs.”

“Jails and emergency rooms are not appropriate mental health treatment facilities, but without a dedicated funding source for treatment programs, we have been forced to resort to these stop-gap solutions,” said Councilmember Dow Constantine, chair of the Capital Budget Panel. “This funding source allows King County to step up where other levels of government have stepped aside and directly help those suffering from substance abuse and mental health problems in our communities.”

“Providing alternatives to incarceration is the key to helping people battling these chronic illnesses and addictions,” said Council Chair Larry Gossett. “As chair of the task force that recommended this tax, this legislation will serve both those in need of mental health services and those that provide the service. It complements the ‘paradigm shift’ we have made in our criminal justice system by providing assistance before people arrive at the emergency room or the county jail.”

“Today we voted to end the suffering that families experience because of mental illness,” said Councilmember Julia Patterson, chair of the King County Board of Health. “No more pushing mental illness under the rug by housing our ill in jails, dark doorways, under bridges, and in homeless shelters. Addressing mental illness directly is long overdue and I look forward to the many positive changes resulting from this legislation.”

“Providing meaningful help for people suffering from mental illness is at the heart of our action today,” said Councilmember Larry Phillips. “With the state having abandoned mental health treatment funding for community-oriented treatment, King County’s funding is a last stopgap to keep those with mental illness out of our jails and off our streets. This plan also helps the dedicated individuals who work in mental health services earn enough to stay in the profession and to support their families.”

The programs and strategies funded by the Action Plan will create a full continuum of treatment, housing and case management services to promote recovery for persons with disabling mental illness or chemical dependency. Public safety is enhanced by reducing the motivation for common crimes such as car theft and ID theft and holding offenders accountable for their actions. These programs seek to prevent and reduce chronic homelessness and unnecessary involvement in the criminal justice and emergency medical systems by:

• Giving people in crisis a safe place to rest: creating a crisis diversion center where police, doctors and family can take individuals who are having a crisis, but aren’t breaking the law or are having a medical crisis.
• Keeping kids alive: providing suicide prevention grants to 19 school districts in King County to raise suicide awareness in kids, help schools develop policies, train teachers and educate parents.
• Expanding crisis outreach for children and youth: creating a reception center for children and youth to give parents, doctors and police an option other than jail or the hospital for kids undergoing a mental health or substance abuse event but who don’t need medical attention.
• Helping people return to communities as they leave jail or the hospital: assisting the mentally ill or chemically dependent to transition out of a facility, finding them a treatment provider, helping them get their medicine, and helping them find a place to live.
• Training police to help people who are having a mental health or substance abuse related crisis: providing crisis intervention training for police and other first responders to help them keep an event from escalating to the point where someone is injured or jailed.

The Council’s Operating Budget Committee last week added a policy framework to the Executive’s proposed legislation to provide increased accountability for the new revenues, by requiring a three-part oversight, implementation, and evaluation plan:

• An oversight group to provide ongoing oversight of the Action Plan, with representation from other county, state and community agencies and entities involved in the mental health, substance abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault, homeless, justice, public health and hospital systems. The oversight plan shall be submitted to the County Council by April 1, 2008.
• An implementation plan to be developed in collaboration with the oversight group and delivered to the Council by June 1, 2008.
• An evaluation plan that includes performance measurements and data collection for reporting and evaluations, to be submitted to the Council by August 1, 2008.

Public health and mental health care were consistently cited as top priorities by participants in the Council’s extensive Citizen Engagement initiative earlier this year. When asked about public health in forums held to determine the public’s priorities for the King County budget, a majority singled out drug and substance abuse treatment as a top priority for funding, with mental health care a strongly voiced and recurring concern.

A standing room audience of more than 400 spoke with one voice at the Council’s June 25 Town Hall in Shoreline, as speaker after speaker called on Councilmembers to support funding for treatment for mental health and chemical dependency. Jail administrators, prosecutors, public defenders, judges, client advocates and hospital officials have joined at public meetings to advocate for the Action Plan.

More than 600 people attended four public hearings over the past two weeks on the 2008 King County Budget, with many testifying in support of funding for the Action Plan. More than 35 appeared at the final Council public hearing today to voice unanimous support for the funding.

The Action Plan is the result of a systematic, year-long process that involved the County, mental health and substance abuse experts, service providers and the justice system to integrate existing services and resources, make changes in the processing of criminal cases, and develop appropriate service and housing options.

The 7 other counties to have enacted the one-tenth of one cent sales tax authorized by the Legislature are Spokane, Skagit, Island, Clark, Clallam, Jefferson and Okanogan counties.