Summaries of State Materials/Process
Proposition 63, The Mental Health Services Act Implementation Updates
The State hopes to receive all counties' MHSA Community Services & Supports plans by the end of this calendar year (2006). During any given week, 2-4 plans are moving through the department's approval process. There are currently 42 counties with approved plans and 53 counties have submitted plans. Over 100,000 people have participated in the planning process.
Every plan reviewed has clever and unique ideas. The department is trying to make a list of those ideas so that they can be shared with all the counties.
The Act requires all counties to submit an "integrated service plan" in year 4 of the Act, which is only 24 months from now. In order to meet that deadline, the state would have to issue the guidelines and requirements of all remaining MHSA components by this December (e.g., Innovation, Prevention & Early Intervention). This is not feasible. At its last meeting the Oversight and Accountability Commission approved a motion to initiate a meeting with the state, the commission's executive committee, county mental health directors, and other stakeholders to discuss how to address the short timeframe for completing the integrated service plans.
The very good news is that tax revenues for MHSA are greatly exceeding expectations. However, people should be careful not to assume this trend will continue on an ongoing basis. The MHSA predicted a 7% growth in revenue each year. May estimates project the state's MHSA revenue will exceed $1 billion by year 2008/09. The following numbers compare the original estimates in the Act with what is estimated in the state's May forecast:
| FISCAL YEAR | ORIGINAL ESTIMATE | INCREASE | NEW ESTIMATE |
| 2004 - 05 | $254 million | $80 million | $334 million |
| 2005 - 06 | $684 million | $514 million | $1.198 billion |
| 2006 - 07 | $690 million | $579 million | $1.269 billion |
It is not certain which approach the state will take in appropriating to counties those funds that exceed the state's original projections.
The Commission recently moved to the following new office location:
700 N. 10th Street, Suite 202
Sacramento, CA, 95814
Phone: (916) 445-1104
Fax: (916) 445-1577
1127 11th St., Suite 925 Sacramento, CA 95814 | Tel: (916) 557-1166 | Fax: (916) 447-2350
