The Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services asked lawmakers Tuesday for $197 million for fiscal year 2019.
The agency's first priority is maintaining current service levels. That will take $40 million. Commissioner Terri White said that number could end up being less if Congress fully reauthorizes the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
"Because you gave us the responsibility for Medicaid for behavioral health for kids, if they do not reauthorize CHIP, it is a $12.2 million dollar hit to us," White said.
The big-ticket item in the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services’ budget request is $97 million dollars for the Smart on Crime Initiative. That funding will expand access to alternative courts in the state, which White said hasn’t happened in more than a decade.
"We have these amazing outcomes: significantly low rearrest and reincarceration rates, significant decrease in jail days and arrest rates," White said. "And we only have mental health court available in 16 counties in our state."
Oklahoma also has just 4,000 drug court slots available. According to figures from the agency, the Smart on Crime initiative will pay for itself in decreased corrections spending by year three.
Before FY2019, however, lawmakers must fill the remaining $21.5 million budget hole the agency still faces this fiscal year.
"If we do not have this addressed by May 1, in May and June, there will be no outpatient services in the state of Oklahoma, with the exception of medication," White said.
White said over the past four years, the agency has lost a combined $133 million in state and federal matching funds for mental health and substance abuse treatment.
