CALIFORNIA — A statewide ballot measure that would overhaul California’s mental health care system, primarily through the issuance of nearly $6.4 billion in bonds, was being narrowly approved Tuesday evening, but still too close to call.
The polls have closed, and results will soon start pouring in for the fate of Proposition 1, the bond measure pushed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to create 11,150 behavioral health treatment beds across the state, along with housing and 26,700 outpatient treatment slots.
Proposition 1 is designed to do so through two methods, primarily the issuance of $6.38 billion in bonds but also through a re-apportionment of funds generated by the Mental Health Services Act, which was passed by voters 20 years ago and imposed a 1% income tax on people earning more than $1 million per year.
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Currently, funds from that measure are largely directed to counties for mental health programs, but Proposition 1 would give the state control over much of the funding.
The 2004, voter-approved millionaires’ tax generates $2 billion to $3 billion in revenue each year. Proposition 1 requires counties to spend 60% of those funds on housing and programs for homeless people with serious mental illnesses or substance abuse problems. Roughly $1 billion of the bond measure is earmarked specifically for veterans.
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With 61.8 percent of precincts partially reporting as of 10:45 p.m. Tuesday, Prop 1 was passing by a narrow margin with 52.4 percent of voters in favor and 47.6 percent against.
The initial election results posted typically reflect ballots received and tallied before election day via vote-by-mail and early voting centers.
The Registrar of Voters and Patch will update the results throughout the night as votes are tallied, and the page will be refreshed for the latest updates. Scroll through the graphic for real-time statewide Proposition 1 results.
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Newsom contends that Proposition 1 would fulfill a vision that began a half-century ago for a comprehensive statewide mental health treatment system that never came to fruition.
“We can make history,” Newsom said earlier this year during a Los Angeles event to begin the campaign in support of the proposition. “We can’t make up the last 50-60 years, but we can finally fulfill that vision that was set forth a half-century ago. This initiative, Proposition 1, promotes a number of things. It does not, however, promote the following — and that’s the status quo. If you’re for the status quo, vote no on Proposition 1.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass also came out in support of the measure. She insisted that the measure would correct years of failure to address the mental health crisis in the state, while also helping alleviate the state’s rampant problems with homelessness.
“Think of how much money would be saved when Proposition 1 is passed and there’s actually facilities for folks, we get people off the streets,” Bass said. “We know that addiction and mental illness is a contributing factor to homelessness. … We cannot separate these problems, and it is not enough to get a bed for a person. We can get people off the street, we have demonstrated that people are willing to come off the street. But you have to address why they were unhoused to begin with. And you have to have a comprehensive approach, and Proposition 1 is a step forward in that direction.”
Opponents of the measure, a group known as Californians Against Proposition 1, deride the measure as “huge, expensive and destructive,” saying it would cost taxpayers more than $9 billion over the life of the bonds, while ordering the redirection of $30 billion in existing mental health services funds in the first decade, “cutting existing mental health services that are working.”
“Prop. 1 breaks promises made by the voters when they first passed the Mental Health Services Act in 2004,” according to the opposition group. “The idea then was to create permanent, dedicated funding for long-neglected mental health services, including prevention, early intervention, programs for youth, programs for struggling and under-served populations, including racially and ethnically diverse groups and LGBTQ people. The MHSA is a proven model, offering `anything it takes’ to help individuals who need a range of services.
“Now, Prop. 1 would sharply reduce that funding, end its dedication to mental health programs and take a hatchet to dozens of programs across the state that cannot survive without MHSA funding. It orders counties to do more with less.”
See Also: CA Proposition Aims To Tackle Homelessness; Some Worry It’ll Worsen It
The single formula would mean rural counties such as Butte, with a homeless population of fewer than 1,300 people, would be required to divert the same percentage of funds to housing as urban counties such as San Francisco, which has a homeless population six times bigger. San Francisco Mayor London Breed said she supports the measure. Butte County officials have expressed concerns.
The funding from the millionaire tax in Butte County has mostly gone to prevention services to combat high suicide and childhood trauma rates. Officials estimated they would have to divert at least 28% of current funding from existing programs toward housing. They say the change could cause cultural centers, peer-support programs, vocational services and even programs working with homeless people to lose funding.
With makeshift tents lining streets and disrupting businesses in communities across the state, homelessness has become one of the most frustrating issues in California and one sure to dog Newsom should he ever mount a national campaign. The Democratic governor has raised about $10 million to back the ballot measure and has appeared in television ads promoting it, indicating it’s one of his top political priorities.
Already he has pushed for laws that make it easier to force people with behavioral health issues into treatment, and he touts the proposition as the final piece of the new approach.
“We are in a unique position to take what we have been promoting — these promises — and make them real, and finally address the issue that defines more stress and more frustrations than any other issue in this state,” Newsom said at the proposition kickoff event.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who authored the 2004 millionaire tax, said the funding is meant to serve homeless people with serious mental illnesses and that county officials and providers “miss the big picture.”
“While it has funded many good programs over 20 years, it has gotten away from the original purpose,” Steinberg said. “Nothing is more important than alleviating the unacceptable suffering of people living and dying on our streets.”
Newsom’s administration already has spent at least $22 billion on various programs to address the crisis, including $3.5 billion to convert rundown motels into homeless housing. California is also giving out $2 billion in grants to build more treatment facilities.
But the crisis is worse than ever, many say.
The state accounts for nearly a third of the homeless population in the United States; roughly 181,000 Californians are in need of housing. A recent survey by the University of California San Francisco’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative found about two-thirds of homeless people in California have a mental health disorder, but only 18% had received recent treatment and only 6% had received any addiction treatment despite rampant abuse.
The state needs some 8,000 more beds to treat mental health and addiction issues, according to researchers who testified before state lawmakers last year.
City News Service and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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