Union has plan to save Md. mental health facility
By: BRIAN WITTE
Associated Press
11/04/09 4:00 PM EST
ANNAPOLIS, MD. — A state employees union submitted a plan Wednesday to spare an Eastern Shore mental health facility from being closed due to budget cuts.
Gov. Martin O'Malley said he will consider it but also noted a decision must be made in the context of the state's budget problems.
Plan supporters include the Maryland chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees as well as the facility's board of trustees. They say the plan would consolidate services and could keep the Upper Shore Community Mental Health Center open with fewer employees and a $7 million budget, about $2 million less than the current budget.
Four Republican lawmakers from the region the facility serves are urging the Board of Public Works to accept the plan, which they say contains "serious sacrifices."
"Positions and patient beds are eliminated," they wrote. "However, the plan provides a safety net for the citizens in need of services on the Eastern Shore that would not be available should the center close."
The facility employs 90 and treats about 200 people a year. Under the new plan, there would be 68 employees. Sue Esty, an AFSCME official, said the proposed redesign of the facility could treat about the same number of inpatients. She also said a new peer counseling program could serve another 200 people on an outpatient basis.
The board's decision to close the mental health facility in Chestertown has been a highly visible cut, resulting in nearly half of 200 layoffs in August.
The O'Malley administration is working on finding other places to treat patients, but the region's lawmakers say alternative services are far away.
O'Malley, a Democrat, told reporters he's sure the board will consider the union proposal, but he noted it will have to consider about $300 million more in budget cuts planned for Nov. 18.
"After that there's another $2 billion coming," O'Malley said, referring to the shortfall in Maryland's $13 billion operating budget in the next fiscal year. "So this is going to be the most challenging budget circumstance that our state has ever faced."
O'Malley was scheduled to meet with T. Eloise Foster, his budget secretary, Wednesday afternoon to talk about cuts that will be submitted in two weeks. He declined to offer any specifics but he noted "it's a long list" and "they'll all be painful."
The board already has cut about $736 million in the current fiscal year, which began in July. The round of cuts later this month will be the seventh time the board has made midyear reductions since O'Malley took office in 2007.
"We're down to core mission, so these are all choices between things that you would like to be able to continue to do but you simply do not have the dollars to continue to do," O'Malley said.
O'Malley also talked with reporters about Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey on Tuesday in two races for governor. O'Malley, who is running for re-election next year, said the election results underscore that people "are very apprehensive, rightly so, about the economy and they want their government to work harder to get us out of this recession as soon as possible."
