No One Was in the Mood to Talk About a Tax Increase Today, Even for Mental Health
November 3rd, 2009 by Rachel PritchettBy Rachel Pritchett
rpritchett@kitsapsun.com
BREMERTON
The chief of Kitsap Mental Health Services probably didn’t get the answer he wanted this morning when he took his case for a tax increase to the Kitsap County Board of Health.
Joe Roszak was seeking a commitment from the health board and the three county commissioners who are on the board to go forward with a proposed tenth-of-a-percent tax increase to fund mental-health services, which he said are wholly inadequate to meet sharply growing need.
Kitsap County Commissioner Josh Brown, after hearing some frightening statistics on how many people are not receiving the help they need, told Roszak that everything depends on the outcome of Initiative 1033, the tax-limiting initiative.
If it passes, it will “completely change” the way the county does business, Brown said. And budget cuts already faced by the county have thrown it into “a state of crisis management.”
That said, Brown suggested a citizens’ work group to look at the tax, then see how the funding landscape shapes up later.
Health board member Darlene Kordonowy told Roszak she believes that if residents knew the tax increase would allow for more local control of mental-health funds, they would support it.
Washington Department of Health Secretary Mary Selecky, at the board meeting this morning, said the future of adequate mental-health funding depends on local funding, because more cuts are in the works at the state level.
Commissioners would be the ones to set the proposed tax increase in motion, and it could go to a vote of the people or not, depending on what they decide.
About 14 counties in Washington have approved the tax, set in motion by the 2005 passage of state Senate Bill 5763.
All that doesn’t help the alliance of mental-health agencies trying to fill the funding gap caused by sudden increased demand for services in this recession.
According to Roszak:
As many as 2,730 young people in Kitsap County who need
mental-health services aren’t getting it.
As many as 12,891 adults are not able to get the care they
need.
The problem of the lack of geropsych beds for mentally ill elderly
people has not been solved.
Only about 32 percent of the 3,154 Kitsap residents who are
chemically dependent are receiving help.
The consequences are “quite tragic” for families and individuals fighting mental illness, he said. The people who aren’t getting help are ending up in jail or the hospitals or public-health clinics.
Stay tuned on this issue. It came down to timing this morning, when calling for endorsement of a tax increase just before voters weigh in on I-1033 received no more than a sympathetic ear.
“We can’t look to the state, we can’t look to the feds. No one has anything,” Roszak said.
Rachel Pritchett
rpritchett@kitsapsun.com
475-3783
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:37 pm
“Commissioners would be the ones to set the proposed tax increase in motion, and it could go to a vote of the people or not, depending on what they decide.”
I don’t see anything in the statute about voter approval, so are you saying that the commissioners have said they might opt for an advisory vote?
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=82.14.460
“…the tax increase would allow for more local control of mental-health funds….”
How would “local control” be changed? The lion’s share of mental health funding now comes from the federal government, not the state, if I recall correctly. It is then spent locally for mental health services. Does Kordonowy know of some “strings attached” that hamper local decisions on how to spend the funding, or is she just blowing smoke?
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:58 pm
Well, I wish something could be done. When I was practically suicidal last year (also out of work and with no insurance), I called every mental health center in the county to get help. I got nada.
I finally went into the 6th street clinic to see if I could get my antidepressants refilled and made the big mistake of saying I had considered suicide. I was then told I should be held in a hospital for three days (and how the hell was I supposed to pay for that?!) and I ended up talking to someone at a facility and convinced her that with the antidepressants, I would be sane enough to live.
And all through this conversation, I was thinking that if I could have just had someone to talk to when I made the original calls, I would not be the mess I was when I finally got into the clinic. Not to mention I wouldn’t have been considered for a bed somewhere for three days that I couldn’t afford.
Am I missing the logic here somewhere?
November 4th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
How could mental health be a problem in Kitsap County? Harrison Medical Center closed its Behavioral Health Unit due to a lack of business. It was the only volunteer facility of its kind in four counties. Obviously the mental state of Kitsap County is in good shape if something like that was not even missed.
How many of these tenth of a percent tax increase’s are in our future? Why not stimulus funding? If the feds supply the majority of the mental health funding, why not try for more? It is only our tax money again anyway. As it is I do the majority of my shopping in gig Harbor and beyond as it is now.
As for 1033, it may not have passed, but if our fine elected officials do not get the message that the voters are tired of being taxed out of home and business they deserve what will probably come next. Hopefully an even more restrictive controls on their spending.
Roger Gay
South Kitsap
November 5th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Kitsap Mental Health does have a problem. Their shining example of a success story went out and shot a prominent tax-paying citizen, Al Kono.
I live in the area that Al made his home, and business. I am fully aware of the loss of this man and how the loss of this man has affected our small community. People say we should look at this as a tragic mistake, forget, and go on with our lives.
Al filled a void in the lives of many. That service can not and is not currently being replaced.
As I said earlier Kitsap Mental Health has a problem, and the problem is credibility. It takes years to establish good credibility and only a minute to snatch it away. I for one, do not beleive they have the tax-payers best interests in mind, and as such, am reluctant to give them any further money until they can prove good stewardship of the monies aready allocated to them.
As a Blue-collar worker, and little opportunities for continuing work, I am dissmayed by the lack of care our elected officials have shown. Taxes.Taxes.Taxes… If you wanted money the Race track would be here. Jobs thats what is needed now not Taxes.
November 5th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Few of us expect a free ride and don’t mind paying taxes.
The waste of taxpayer dollars is the overriding concern…not paying them.
Sharon O’Hara