Capitol View
IN his own self-effacing sort of way, Calvin Say, speaker of the state House, put his finger right on the Legislature's biggest problem this year. State must meet
mental health needsDespite what you might have gleaned from the headlines and nightly news teases, it isn't regulating fireworks or handgun control.
Education is always up there. This year, however, the issue is even bigger than fixing classrooms and hiring and training teachers.
"it's not what we want, it is what Ezra wants, that's what a lot of this is going to be about," Say remarked while ticking off the issues he will handle this legislative session.
The issue is keeping U.S. District Judge David Ezra from selling off state land and assets to pay for state mental health operations.
Ezra said last month that he is willing to order "the allocation of substantial resources that will be necessary to bring the Hawaii State Hospital... into compliance."
In December, Ezra said he would have a federal monitor start reviewing the State Hospital and other state-run adult mental health programs.
This is needed because nine years ago the U.S. Justice Department filed a complaint against the state after a federal investigation found that patients were not being treated properly.
"The people of Hawaii will not understand (the Legislature's) failure to act and provide the funding, or the takeover (of the hospital), or state resources being seized and attached by the court and state property being seized and sold by federal marshals," Ezra said last month.
This is what can happen if the state doesn't come up with the money to fund programs that it has been trying to correct for almost a decade.
"It has been almost 10 years," Ezra said. "We have run to the end of the railroad tracks, and the court is going to get off the train."
The state may have little choice but to start paying.
It is not a period that lawmakers and state officials can be very proud of. The shackles, reliance on drugs and the general treatment of those with mental illness as either criminals or outcasts has constantly plagued Hawaii.
Now the question isn't one of shaming the state into meeting its humane responsibilities, but either deciding to do what Ezra says or having the federal government take over the program.
Governor Cayetano, who has tried to get the Legislature to increase funding, points out that Puerto Rico ran into the same problems and it has cost billions of dollars.
How much it will cost appears to be something of a floating figure. The state Health Department already needs extra money this year to make up for money borrowed from this spring's payroll to pay for community-based treatment.
Added to that is $8 million to meet the federal requirements. Then there is $4 million more to get federal matching money to help 390 adults and 460 children on waiting lists for aid to the developmentally disabled.
That isn't all. There are other expenses and emergency appropriations for other parts of the State Hospital issue, plus there is more money needed for the other court order -- the Felix consent degree.
Obviously for a state so stocked with politicians who start their careers claiming to be "social liberals" there has been some distance between the rhetoric and the checkbook.
Today, a decidedly unamused federal judge isn't listening to the talk and is willing to measure the exact depth of Hawaii commitment to the mentally ill, handicapped and delayed in real dollars.
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He can be reached by e-mail at rborreca@pixi.com