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EDITORIAL: Mental health costs must be considered

Post-Bulletin (Rochester, MN) - 6/28/2016

June 28--Amid complaints about the lack of state transportation and capital improvement funding, Olmsted County commissioners have acknowledged state lawmakers were able to accomplish some things last session.

Commissioner Sheila Kiscaden noted new legislation will add an estimated $900,000 to the Olmsted County budget to meet county residents' mental health needs. It's connected to a new requirement, which charges counties 100 percent of the costs for anyone staying more than 100 days in a state-operated Community Behavioral Health Hospital.

During last week's county board meeting, Kiscaden said the added requirement comes as the state is also raising its rates. "That's just one of the impacts coming out of the legislative session," she said, noting other changes will require the county to hire more staff.

Counties have seen a string of adjustments since the state's mental health hospitals were closed. State officials promised help with the added responsibility, but last week, Olmsted County Administrator Richard Devlin once again noted counties continue to wait for such help.

While we believe the state took the right action in deciding to close hospitals in an effort to regionalize support and guard against warehousing of patients, doing so without a specific system in place was a mistake. Instead of a mental health system, the state's counties struggle with an array of ever-shifting policies and expenses.

In a time when some state lawmakers are promising to not raise taxes, they are shifting costly burdens onto counties, forcing other elected officials to make the tough choices. Kiscaden said it's time to put state officials on notice. "They don't have the courage to look at what their true spending needs are, so they transfer it to counties and force us to put it on property taxes," she said.

That cost mustbe paid, whether from state or county coffers.

Devlin noted the added county costs will be felt in larger population centers first, but will eventually be faced by all 87 counties in Minnesota. "Olmsted and the metro counties are going to feel the effects first," he said.

Because of that, Olmsted County commissioners will need to be some of the first to speak out about the concerns, but the county's property taxpayers should join the chorus. Unless local elected officials and voters can speak in a single voice, it's unlikely we will get the attention of state legislators during this election year.

We've raised concerns about the state's lack of a defined mental health system before, and we will likely continue to do so as long as needed facilities are understaffed and the lack of funding remains a barrier to helping those needing mental health services.

Simply passing on the burden isn't appropriate.

We like Olmsted County Commissioner Paul Wilson's analogy for the current circumstances. He likened the state to a dysfunctional parent who provides a child a meager allowance and expects the youth to support himself in the face of overwhelming costs.

We'd also echo his view looking forward: "It's very frightening."

Our View reflects opinions of the Post-Bulletin Editorial Board, which operates independently of the newspaper's reporting and editing staff.

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