Governor Evers Calls Republicans Decision to Cut Mental Health Proposals From the Budget "Foolishness"

Thursday, May 4th, 2023 -- 1:00 PM

(By Hope Kirwan, Wisconsin Public Radio) Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said Republicans' decision to completely cut his proposals for mental health funding from the next state budget is "foolishness."

According to Hope Kirwan with the Wisconsin Public Radio, the governor toured the Coulee Recovery Center in La Crosse on Tuesday to promote his proposals to make 2023 the "Year of Mental Health" in Wisconsin.

Evers proposed $500 million for mental health programs in the next state budget. But many of those programs, including $235 million for mental health services in schools, were cut by the Republican-led budget committee during a vote on Tuesday.

GOP lawmakers cut a total of 545 proposals, including a new paid family leave program, the legalization of marijuana and an enrollment freeze in the state's voucher school program.

Evers said on Tuesday that he recently saw the impact of increased funding for school mental health during a visit to the Delavan-Darien School District. He said he met with 50 students who are trained as peer helpers on the issue of drug and alcohol abuse.

"That will stop happening next year because the Legislature decided to take the Kids Get Ahead initiative out of the budget," Evers said. "The need is there. It's an overwhelming need even in a smaller school district like Delavan-Darien where they are actually not only reaching out to kids, they're reaching out to the community. They're having mental health and behavioral health discussions in the community. That stops. That's foolishness."

He said the need to expand access to mental and behavioral health services is a "major issue" both in Wisconsin and across the country. "We believe our efforts in the budget around mental and behavioral health and substance use were a reasonable approach. Just to kick it out of the budget indicates that the other side doesn't care much about it," he said.

But Republicans in the state Legislature said Tuesday the governor's budget was unrealistic and out of step with their priorities. They voted to build the budget from "base," which means they'll add spending to the budget passed two years ago rather than the one Ever's proposed to the Legislature in February.

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