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The making of an unfunded mandate: Cuts to mental health would dump costs on county jails

Around the state, reporters and local officials are waking up to a sleeper issue that this blog has been sounding the alarm about for years: The danger posed to county budgets, especially local jails, by cuts in the number of state mental hospital beds and mental health care generally - an issue likely to reach a critical stage if state hospitals are cut further next spring by the 82nd Texas Legislature. A TV station in El Paso is the latest to pick up this meme; reports KFOX-TV:"Legislatively, the movement for treating mentally ill people is going from the state and it's going to local governments," [El Paso County Sheriff's Lt. Michaela] Hebeker told KFOX 14.Funding of mental health programs could turn into a monumental shift come January and the 82nd Texas Legislative session...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on December 28, 2010 (boomark / email).