State must meet mental health needs IN his own self-effacing sort of way, Calvin Say, speaker of the state House, put his finger right on the Legislature's biggest problem this year. Despite what you might have gleaned from the headlines and nightly news teases, it isn't regulating fireworks or handgun control.
Education is always up there.
This year, however, the issue is even bigger than fixing classrooms and hiring and training teachers. The issue is keeping U.S. District Judge David Ezra from selling off state land and assets to pay for state mental health operations. In December, Ezra said he would have a federal monitor start reviewing the State Hospital and other state-run adult mental health programs. This is needed because nine years ago the U.S. Justice Department filed a complaint against the state after a federal investigation found that patients were not being treated properly. This is what can happen if the state doesn't come up with the money to fund programs that it has been trying to correct for almost a decade.