Mental Health Activists Target State Tax Surplus

Mental health advocates, buoyed by the discovery of a windfall in state sales tax revenue, turned their political sights Friday on the $2.5-billion surplus as an unexpected savior for mental health programs in Los Angeles and other counties.

Outlining a plan to tap the sudden largess, a trio of state legislators unveiled a proposal that would reserve $175 million of the newly found money for mental health programs that have already suffered drastic cuts.

“The mental health system is the worst-funded system--period--in the state of California,” Assemblyman Bruce Bronzan (D-Fresno) told a cheering audience of 2,300 mental health activists, family members and politicians who had gathered at the downtown Bonaventure Hotel to map out their legislative strategy.

Bronzan was joined by Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) and Assemblyman Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) in outlining a proposal that came two days after Gov. George Deukmejian disclosed that the state’s estimated sales tax revenue will increase by $2.5 billion.

Under current law, the major share of that money will go to public schools and community colleges because of provisions of Proposition 98, the school-spending initiative approved by voters last November.

But the surprise announcement also raised the hopes of special interest groups--ranging from welfare recipients to city governments--who hope to tap the fund.

Bronzan, a longtime supporter of mental health who chairs the Assembly Health Committee, however, insisted Friday that mental health be considered a special priority and that the $175 million “off the top, must be preserved exclusively for mental health care.”

Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who along with three other board members addressed the luncheon, told the crowd that he would formally ask his colleagues next week to back the legislative plan making mental health a top priority.

If approved, the legislators said $107 million of the $175 million would be earmarked to stabilize current programs and avert program cuts planned by various counties. Another $23 million would go to mentally disturbed children, $10 million for the homeless mentally ill, $10 million to house the chronically mentally ill, $24 million to expand pilot programs enacted by the State Legislature last year and another $1 million to begin new projects.

Mental Health Director Roberto Quiroz said that while the county normally receives about one-third of the state’s mental health dollars, it remains unclear how much of the $175 million would actually go to Los Angeles.

And Quiroz said that even if the additional money is set aside for mental health, it would come too late to save three outpatient clinics that county officials are closing after a state Supreme Court ruling Thursday that removed the final legal barrier.

But he added that the county’s share could be enough to prevent further budget cuts, including a recommended $8-million reduction that Chief Administrative Officer Richard B. Dixon has proposed for the mental health department during the next fiscal year.

The luncheon, a largely upbeat affair, had its most sobering moment during a tribute for slain mental health worker Robbyn Panitch. The 36-year-old Panitch was stabbed during a counseling session at a Santa Monica clinic.

In requesting a moment of silence for Panitch, Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels of Temple Shir Shalom in West Los Angeles called her “a victim of a bureaucratic insult that . . . claimed there was no money to surround and support her and her colleagues with better security.”

Since her death last February, county officials have beefed up security at the Santa Monica clinic and other county facilities.