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Sample Letter to the Editor

Published in the Journal News April 19, 2001

To the editor:

The community mental health providers of Westchester County are confronting a crisis created by the failure of state funding to keep pace with inflation over the past decade. It is increasingly difficult to recruit and retain qualified staff and to provide the administrative framework essential for responsible service delivery.

The Governor's budget request responds to this crisis with a 10 % increase in outpatient Medicaid rates and a cost of living adjustment of up to 2.5% in each of the next three years. Although The Governor's proposal would merely stop the erosion, it is significant. We support it as a bare minimum.

The Assembly has proposed improving the Governor's request by guaranteeing a minimum COLA of 2.5% in each of the next three years, while the Senate has decided to reduce the Governor's proposal by limiting the COLA to one year and by applying it only to the salaries of direct service workers.

We are grateful that elected officials seem to recognize the crisis facing community mental health providers and their clients. But we are very concerned that the dispute among the Governor, The Senate, and The Assembly jeopardize even a minimally adequate response to the crisis.

We urge the Journal News to support either the Governor's original proposal, which links additional funding to savings in the State system, or the Assembly's proposal, which identifies sources of funding which make it unnecessary to close or consolidate State hospitals. Either would provide the sort of multi-year approach that is necessary.

Sincerely,

Signed by the Executive Directors of 5 major mental health agencies in Westchester County

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