Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and California lawmakers are looking to update the state's behavioral and mental health system and add a $4.68 billion bond measure for treatment beds. A joint committee hearing will convene on Tuesday to discuss the newly amended language in an effort to overhaul mental healthcare.
Newsom put forward the mental health reform legislation earlier this year to change a 20-year-old ballot initiative. In 2004, voters passed the Mental Health Services Act, placing a 1% tax on income over $1 million to subsidize mental health resources. Newsom’s bill aims to help house homeless people with mental illness and addictions by requiring California counties to spend 30% of the funding from that tax on housing for those with a mental illness.
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A majority of the half tax revenue has been generated in the last five years, raising $4.8 billion last year and well over $20 billion total. Newsom's proposal redirects the income tax revenue from the 2004 act and proposes a $4.68 billion bond measure to add treatment beds for those struggling with mental health.
What do the mental health amendments allow?
Proposed by Newsom and introduced by Democratic state Sen. Susan Eggman as Senate Bill 326, the amendments would update the state’s behavioral health system. Democratic Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin also introduced AB 531 as part of a joint package with Newsom and Eggman to provide California with additional mental health resources.
Newsom and Democratic lawmakers are pushing to have the bill on the March 2024 ballot, creating “thousands of new community behavioral health beds in state-of-the-art residential settings to house Californians with mental illness and substance use disorders, which could serve over 10,000 people every year.”
California counties will allocate two-thirds of the revenue from the tax on 24/7 mental health services, and it permits the transfer of funds between housing and prevention.
The bill orders 51% of the early intervention funds to be spent on children and youth prevention programs.
The legislation would overhaul the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, renaming it the Behavioral Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, and would require the state's department of health to establish housing interventions that offer a number of social services.
What are critics saying?
Some in opposition to the amendments said the updates would reduce funding for current programs. The Legislative Analyst's Office released a series of reports in July saying Newsom’s plan could negatively affect mental health services.
“While there could be an increase in MHSA funding for children and youth services within FSPs, there likely would be a reduction in MHSA funding available for other children and youth services,” the LAO report read. “On net, we find that whether the current level of county MHSA spending — particularly at the county level — on children and youth services would be maintained is uncertain.”
The LAO criticized Newsom’s plan to remove some oversight from the current committee, arguing the legislature should have more control over the bond measure and how it would use the money.
“We recommend that the Legislature amend the statutory proposal to provide more direction to the administration and ensure an ongoing legislative role in the bond’s implementation,” the LAO wrote.
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What are the next steps?
The Assembly’s Housing and Health committees are meeting on Tuesday in Sacramento at the state Capitol to discuss the future of the reform bill following the Senate Health Committee’s information hearing last week.
For the measure to make the March 2024 ballot, two-thirds of California lawmakers would need to vote for it. Irwin and Eggman’s bills would be combined into a single ballot measure to transform the MHSA, and a majority of voters in the Golden State would need to support the bill to become law.