Though a few of its members mentioned they’re involved about dropping management of hundreds of thousands in state psychological well being funds, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors determined Tuesday to again Proposition 1, the $6.38 billion bond that may faucet into income of California’s current millionaire tax to construct extra services for these in want of psychological well being and substance abuse remedy.
In a Three-2 vote, with members Joel Anderson and Jim Desmond opposed, supervisors accepted a decision in help of the measure that can seem on the March 5 major poll.
As attested by an evaluation by the nonpartisan California Legislative Analyst’s Workplace, Proposition 1 would reallocate about $140 million per yr of the $2 billion to $Three.5 billion in annual income raised by way of Proposition 63, the 1 % revenue tax on private revenue exceeding $1 million that voters accepted in 2004.
Also referred to as the Psychological Well being Companies Act, Prop. 63 allocates about 95 % of income to county governments, permitting boards to spend funds on psychological well being providers.
Proposition 1 is not going to change the tax itself.
One % of the private revenue of these incomes greater than $1 million a yr will proceed to be collected and allotted to psychological well being providers. But when voters approve the brand new measure on March 5, the state’s share of that money will improve from 5 % to 10 %. Counties would see their share of MHSA income drop from 95 % to 90 %. The state’s bigger 10 % share (estimated at $310 million yearly) can be used to pay greater than $6 billion in bonds over 30 years.
About 30 % of the bond proceeds can be used to construct housing throughout the state, whereas 70 % can be paid to construct new services.
The state estimates the money would “construct locations for six,800 individuals to obtain psychological well being care and drug or alcohol remedy at anybody time” and “as much as four,350 housing models, with 2,350 reserved for veterans, a quantity mentioned to be “present housing for greater than 20 % of homeless veterans.”
The legislative analyst’s evaluation finds that this extra spending is not going to be ample to deal with both the necessity for extra behavioral well being and substance abuse remedy or the housing want. The spending, the report says, “would construct many new remedy websites,” however “there could also be some want for brand new websites after the bond funds are spent. And “the variety of housing models constructed by way of the bond would scale back statewide homelessness by solely a small quantity.”
Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, amongst three who voted in favor of Proposition 1, mentioned that whereas the county has spent quite a bit on native applications to deal with psychological well being care, substance abuse and other people points homeless, together with launching 37 cell disaster response groups throughout the county, a broader effort can also be wanted.
“Daily it is clearer that we’d like reforms within the state to proceed to offer higher providers, we’d like extra funding and we’d like various kinds of funding streams,” Lawson-Remer mentioned. “Because of Governor Newsom and the Legislature, Proposition 1 ‘Therapy, Not Tents,’ if accepted by voters in March, will refocus billions in current funding, prioritize individuals who have the best psychological well being wants and who stay in camps. and endure from substance abuse issues.”
However Desmond mentioned he voted towards supporting Proposition 1 as a result of he and plenty of others merely consider counties know finest the place to spend MHSA funds, particularly since income is already spent on necessary applications like disaster stabilization models , which give important further funds. from federal sources, benefiting from revenue tax revenues from high-income earners.
“My understanding is that we pay 30 % of the price of the disaster stabilization models, and the federal authorities matches us with 70 %,” Desmond mentioned. “If that fund is lowered for the Psychological Well being Companies Act, issues like disaster stabilization models, we’ll nonetheless fund them, however one thing else is rising: that fund is being lowered.”