Proposed Cut in Mental Health Funds

* Re “$12 Million in Cuts Needed to Balance Budget,” May 20.

The proposed $2-million cut in services to the seriously mentally ill is outrageous--more so if one considers county policy from the early 1990s until recently, when the county fraudulently billed Medicare / Medi-Cal and routinely transferred mental health realignment (tax) dollars to other departments for other uses.

The chief administrative officer justifies the $2-million cut as a payback for costs of the failed merger. The excessive billing did not enrich the mentally ill, and they should not be made to pay for the catastrophic damage done to the county by a policy they had no voice in making.

The legacy of that policy is an increase in untreated and marginally supported mentally ill people in the community and fewer placement options. Supervisor Kathy Long is quoted as saying the CAO has “tough targets” and that he is asking departments to “put services out there” for cuts. Administrative and other bureaucratic costs should be cut before cutting services. It needs to be remembered that Long provided the swing vote for the failed merger that has jeopardized this county, the people it is mandated to serve and the taxpayers.

A $2-million cut would worsen conditions for the seriously and persistently mentally ill and place a greater burden on police, sheriff and court systems. It is reasonable to expect that, if the sheriff and other safety departments are as over-funded as recently published statistics indicate, the Board of Supervisors must address that inequity. Appropriate care and support of the mentally ill will lighten the load of those departments. Conditions for the mentally ill must not be made worse by an outrageous $2-million budget cut.

LOU MATTHEWS

Ventura