State budget dispute holds up mental health funds

A dispute over how much money was set aside in the recently passed state budget for the Ohio Department of Mental Health has held up the distribution of hundreds of millions of dollars meant for behavioral health and addiction services across the state (Source: “Budget snafus delay local mental health $,” Mansfield News Journal, July 28, 2009).

Services that could be affected include crisis services, payment at group homes and indigent funding for treatment at local hospitals.

Under Gov. Ted Strickland’s original budget, the ODMH stood to lose $179 million. On July 13, a bipartisan budget conference committee passed a two-year plan they claimed to restore $65 million of that. Although mental health advocates and associations dispute the revised numbers, the conference committee’s version of the bill passed. State legislators are now in the process of clarifying the budget language.