The Department of Mental Health announced plans this week to eliminate 146 jobs at two state facilities as the agency struggles to close a $19.7 million budget gap in 2018. These cuts are the first wave in a total of 650 positions the agency said it will need to cut by June 30, 2018.
Central Mississippi Residential Center in Newton and East Mississippi State Hospital in Meridian will cut 72 positions and 74 positions, respectively. East Mississippi plans to consolidate its adolescent psychiatric services program with one at Mississippi State Hospital in Whitfield.
In addition, Central Mississippi will transition operation of its Footprints Adult Day Services program and its crisis stabilization unit to a private provider, Weems Community Health Center, based in Meridian. A representative for the Department said all current employees will have the opportunity to apply for positions through Weems.
The cuts to Central Mississippi Residential Center and East Mississippi State Hospital were first reported by the Newton County Appeal and the Meridian Star, respectively. Both state-run facilities provide behavioral health and nursing home services to residential and community residents.
Rep. Tom Miles, D-Forest, said he was concerned about the impact the cuts would have on the department and on the workers themselves.
“I’ve gotten phone calls since Thursday on this, from ladies and men crying about losing their jobs and how they’ve dedicated the last 15 years of their lives to this facility,” Miles said, speaking about the cuts at Central Mississippi Regional Facility.
“We warned people about this during the session, that this was going to happen. I don’t think realistically that some of the legislators in this body realize how these budget cuts are going to impact people’s lives.”
East Mississippi State Hospital is currently facing a $5 million cut to that facility alone, while Central Mississippi Residential Center has to close a $1.1 million hole. Six other facilities run by the Department of Mental Health are facing budget cuts between $1 million and $14 million.
House Appropriations Chair John Read, R-Gautier, acknowledged that cuts to the Department of Mental Health were not “pretty,” but said falling revenue projections left the Legislature in a tough position.
“I have personally started going up and asking (my constituents) four questions. Naturally, the question you ask the most — do you think we should raise taxes? Well, you’re not going to find anyone who doesn’t want their tax break,” Read said in a separate conversation about other cuts to the Department of Mental Health.
Although state agencies across the board felt the impact of declining revenues in fiscal year 2018, the Department of Mental Health has been hit especially hard, with a total of $14.4 million slashed from its general fund appropriation. In addition the agency said it will have $5.3 million in new expenses, for a total gap of $19.7 million.
The announcement that the Department of Mental Health plans to cut 650 jobs comes on the heels of confirmation Friday that the agency was forced to freeze the wait list for the intellectual and developmental disability waiver program. Like Footprints at Central Mississippi, the waiver program enables patients to receive treatment while living at home, avoiding placement in a facility.
Access to home-based services is particularly crucial for Mississippi’s Department of Mental Health. Last August, the U.S. Justice Department filed a complaint against the agency for “failing to provide adults with mental illness with necessary integrated, community-based mental health services.”
The Department of Mental Health, in the same budget impact letter that confirmed plans to eliminate 650 positions, said it was planning to shift the operation of some services to Community Mental Health Centers in addition to Weems.
But Miles said he’s skeptical these services will be up to their previous standards.
“I understand that the’re trying to fill in the gaps but this notion that they’re using, that everything is going to be okay is not — people are still going to lose jobs, and people are still going to lose services,” Miles said. “They’re sugarcoating it.”
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the Department of Mental Health planned to layoff 650 people. While some layoffs will occur, many of those positions mentioned will also come from retirements, departures, and positions currently vacant.
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Naturally when the budget ax swings in the state of Mississippi, the most vulnerable and more powerless ones find their necks on the chopping block. Meanwhile Philbilly Bryant continues to engage in providing corporate welfare to corporations for dirty manufacturing. And the irony is that the populace continues to vote these republicans into office…sad.
Irony ? Democrats are quick to raise taxes every chance they get, and then spend other peoples money like drunken sailors. Republicans are left to take the unfortunate steps of trying to keep programs sustainable when hard times come around, just like most ordinary citizens have to make hard financial choices to make the paycheck reach the end of the month. Layoffs are tough, but fiscal responsibility is a concept Democrats have never grasped.
Yup, those republicans were left to make some hard financial choices, like giving shopping mall developers $300 million under the guise of job creation and “cultural retail” attractions in 2014. Or how about adding nearly a billion dollars to the state’s bond debt to pay for projects because the 46 tax cuts they’ve enacted since 2012 haven’t showed much return?
People are not “programs” or “hard financial choices”. What are these affected people and patients supposed to do? This isn’t a Democrat or Republican issue, it’s a self-centered vs other-centered issue. Matthew 25:40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
It’s only going to get worse thanks to Tate Reeves demanding that 415 million dollar giveaway for his rich donors.
Schools have already started laying off teachers and these cuts to mental health are just the lastest warning of what’s to come. Mississippi is going backwards.
Or Chairman Read could shoot straight with his constituents and tell them they aren’t getting a tax break. The corporations are.
“Well, you’re not going to find anyone who doesn’t want their tax break.” When you put it like that Mr. Read sure you’ll get the ideological answer you want, but govt is leadership – not simply a tax formula originating from uncompassionate principles. Mental health illnesses come in many varieties and often are not preventable like other diseases such as heart disease & diabetes, & the affected, vulnerable, “(un)pretty” people don’t often pay taxes (because they can’t work) & so must depend on elected representatives such as you Mr. Read, who (based on your callous response) clearly won’t speak for them, & Mississippi citizens, who apparently (based on Mr. Read’s response) won’t help take care of them. Mathew 25:40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
If one is willing to look at the hard numbers, they will see the average Mississippian isn’t getting much of a tax break compared to what Reeves is handing out to his rich friends. You also have to consider the tax burden is being shifted to local governments who are going to be forced to raise property taxes to cover the shortfall.
All Tate has accomplished is to shuffle the chairs on the deck of the Titanic.
“Gov. Phil Bryant on Friday signed the largest tax cut in Mississippi history, a measure that will reduce taxes by $415 million over the next 12 years.Senate Bill 2858 will phase out Mississippi’s $260 million-a-year corporate franchise tax, a long-held goal of business groups. It would also cut $145 million in income taxes, raising the threshold for paying state income taxes to $10,000. Anyone making that much would eventually get a $150-a-year cut. … the lowest-earning 20 percent of taxpayers, making $16,000 or less, would save an average of $14 a year….”
https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2016/05/13/bryant-signs-bill-cut-415-million-business-income-taxes/84353830/
Disgusting!!! Shame on you MS “leaders”. “How we walk with the broken speaks louder than how we sit with the great.”