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Senate finance committee adopts mental health budget substitute, shifts funding and adds crisis call‑center receipts
Summary
The Senate Finance Committee adopted a committee substitute for House Bill 55 (mental health budget) on May 1, moving certain alcohol fund authority to the Department of Health, adding mental-health‑trust-authority receipts for a crisis call center and training, and setting the bill aside for final action tomorrow.
The Alaska State Senate Finance Committee on May 1 adopted the committee substitute for House Bill 55, the mental health budget, and set the bill aside for final action at tomorrow's meeting.
Committee staff said the substitute makes a net-zero swap of funding between the Department of Health and the judiciary: $518,000 of alcohol and drug abuse treatment and prevention funds (statutorily designated) will be moved from the judiciary to the Department of Health, and the judiciary will receive $518,000 of general mental-health funds in return. The substitute also authorizes $750,000 in Mental Health Trust authority receipts (MTAR) for a crisis call center and $200,000 in MTAR for professional training and development.
"There was a net 0 transaction between the Department of Health and the judiciary," Pete Eklund, budget coordinator and staff to the committee, told members. He noted that statutory designation requires certain alcohol- and drug-abuse funds to be administered by the Department of Health rather than the judiciary, and the substitute aligns fund sources accordingly. Eklund said prior language that moved Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation funding into this bill was reversed and that the APFC funding remains in HB 53, creating a net-zero change across the two bills.
The substitute also adds contract approvals and bargaining-unit language consistent with the operating budget substitute; the same three collective bargaining approvals included in HB 53 were added to HB 55. Committee members adopted the substitute without recorded roll-call votes; the chair said the bill will be taken up tomorrow for final action.
