Mental health budget proposal draws criticism Advocates fear cuts in services

AUGUSTA – Presented on Tuesday with two starkly different views of proposed budget adjustments to mental health services, some lawmakers rejected the King administration’s position that the changes would have little, if any, impact on services.

Sen. Susan Longley, D-Liberty, said she was skeptical of the rosy description given by Lynn Duby, commissioner of the Department of Behavioral and Developmental Services. Longley co-chairs the Health and Human Services Committee, which joined the Appropriations Committee for the hearing.

“I just want honesty – not that you’re being dishonest,” Longley said.

After a couple of pointed questions from Longley, Duby agreed there would be service implications from some of the cuts.

Duby said the cuts and funding adjustments, which would plug almost $10 million of the state’s $240 million shortfall, were intended to minimize the impact. Most of the changes she described involved capturing new federal reimbursements and trimming duplicate services.

Among the proposals is a $1.1 million cut to community-based mental health services.

“Our assessment is we won’t see a reduction in services,” Duby had said before Longley’s questions.

In contrast to Duby’s position, a mental health lobbyist said the cuts would be severe. Ron Welch, executive director of the Maine Association of Mental Health Services, which represents the state’s 35 community mental health providers, said the proposals would displace as many as 4,000 people from services and result in the loss of more than 200 jobs.

“It is nearly impossible to contemplate service reductions when so many people lack so much right now,” said Carol Carothers, executive director of the state chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

She said cutting community support programs would increase costs for the care of people who would wind up in shelters and jail. She said mental health services in the state already are inadequate.

Asked about the duplication of services, Carothers said, “We do not believe there is data to prove that there is serious duplication.”

Some lawmakers complained about inadequate materials describing the proposals, and others said governmental agencies were making things hard to understand.

“They intentionally provide us with a package that we can’t follow,” Rep. Edward Dugay, D-Cherryfield, said during an interview after the session.

During both the BDS and Department of Human Services presentations Monday and Tuesday, members of both committees asked for additional information and complained that some of the proposals weren’t sufficiently clear.

Dugay, who sits on the Health and Human Services Committee, said both departments are following a strategy that is particularly effective because veteran lawmakers have been weeded out of the Legislature by term limits. The problem points up a need for the state to develop a new system with an independent financial review, Dugay said.

Katie Sanborn, a BDS spokeswoman, said the department follows a standard format for creating the budget information and endeavors to get back to lawmakers with answers to questions.