Public hearing Nov. 13 on proposed sales tax for Mental Illness and Drug Dependency Action Plan

The Metropolitan King County Council invites citizens to speak at a public hearing on the proposed one-tenth of one cent sales tax authorized by the state legislature. This funding will support the programs outlined in King County’s Mental Illness and Drug Dependency Action Plan – the strategies and programs designed to divert people suffering from mental illness and chemical dependency away from jails and emergency rooms and get them into proper treatment.

The public hearing will be held:

Tuesday, November 13
1:30 p.m.
King County Council chambers
10th floor, King County Courthouse

The Council is expected to act on the sales tax proposal following the public hearing.

The programs and strategies in the Mental Illness and Drug Dependency Action Plan are aimed at protecting the public by holding offenders accountable for their actions, reducing the motivation for common crimes such as car theft and ID theft, and restoring the lives of those afflicted by disabling mental illness and chemical dependency. The strategies and proposals for a wide range of services and outcomes include: 

• Giving people in crisis a safe place to rest: creating a crisis diversion center where police, doctors and family can take individuals who are having a crisis, but aren’t breaking the law or are having a medical crisis.
• Keeping kids alive: providing suicide prevention grants to 19 school districts in King County to raise suicide awareness in kids, help schools develop policies, train teachers and educate parents. 
• Expanding crisis outreach for children and youth: creating a reception center for children and youth to give parents, doctors and police an option other than jail or the hospital for kids undergoing a mental health or substance abuse event but who don’t need medical attention. 
• Helping people return to communities as they leave jail or the hospital: assisting the mentally ill or chemically dependent to transition out of a facility, finding them a treatment provider, helping them get their medicine, and helping them find a place to live.
• Training police to help people who are having a mental health or substance abuse related crisis: providing crisis intervention training for police and other first responders to help them keep an event from escalating to the point where someone is injured or jailed.

Public health and mental health care were consistently cited as top priorities by participants in the Council’s extensive Citizen Engagement initiative earlier this year. When asked about public health in forums held to determine the public’s priorities for the King County budget, a majority singled out drug and substance abuse treatment as a top priority for funding, with mental health care a strongly voiced and recurring concern.

A standing room audience of more than 400 spoke with one voice at the Council’s June 25 Town Hall in Shoreline, as speaker after speaker called on the Councilmembers to support funding for treatment for mental health and chemical dependency.

More than 600 people attended four public hearings over the past two weeks on the 2008 King County Budget, with many testifying in support of funding for the Mental Illness and Drug Dependency Action Plan.

The Action Plan is the result of a systematic, year-long process that involved the County, mental health and substance abuse experts, service providers and the justice system to integrate existing services and resources, make changes in the processing of criminal cases, and develop appropriate service and housing options. It has been endorsed by elected leaders and criminal justice administrators.

In 2005, the Washington State Legislature provided counties with the authority to enact a one-tenth of one cent sales tax to fund new or expanded mental health and substance abuse treatment services as well as therapeutic courts. Since then, county councils in seven counties have enacted that option: Spokane, Skagit, Island, Clark, Clallam, Jefferson and Okanogan counties.