Mental Health Funding

The practice of transferring 10% of the mental health realignment funds (sales tax and vehicle license revenues earmarked by the state for the care of the mentally ill) to other agencies is alarming, considering the extremity of the needs of ill individuals who are either left to wander the streets homeless or who are being dropped off in our downtowns at unsupervised hotels. The care of these ill people has been inappropriately shifted from the Behavioral Health Department to our police and the jails.

In these times of outstanding county prosperity, there is no longer any excuse for balancing the county budget with funds intended to serve our most ill and disenfranchised citizens.

The Board of Supervisors should give all mental health realignment funds and all the necessary legal appropriations back to the Behavioral Health Department. The board should keep in trust any funds that are not used within a given fiscal year to support the development of sub-acute care facilities and residential care facilities for people suffering from no-fault brain disorders. And it should begin repaying, with interest, the $5.4 million taken from Behavioral Health over the past six years.

SUSAN VINSON, Ventura