Letter: Tax shortfall becomes matter of life, death

Friday, March 7, 2003 | 5:41 a.m.

The shortfall in Nevada taxes is a matter of life and death, and this was made strikingly clear at recent legislative budget hearings on mental health. Each legislator, administrator and citizen who spoke reported that crucial state mental health programs in northern and rural Nevada were in acute distress and clearly "broken," and programs in Clark County were in gridlock.

Those who argue that new taxes are not needed and that services should be further reduced, need to read the transcript of the Feb. 17 joint Assembly-Senate budget hearing. Population growth has overwhelmed emergency hospital services and the most critical mental health programs in all of the state's rapidly growing counties. The outcomes include even more suicides (we are now ranked second in the country per capita in this category), unconscionable waiting periods in emergency rooms and mental health facilities, and an acute shortage of hospital beds and clinicians.

The private sector has largely deserted the mentally ill of Southern Nevada, and acutely mentally ill people are being left without timely vital services. In the state's facilities, staffs are struggling to deal with the crush and their use of possibly illegal restraints and seclusion is growing (according to state of Nevada spokespersons), even with a competent and decent group of administrators in charge. The next person turned away from emergency services could well be a member of your family.

Gov. Kenny Guinn has opted to meet a significant part of these and other shortfalls with new taxes. And education is suffering nearly as much as mental health. It is necessary for all of us to support his humane and fiscally responsible program.

RICHARD SIEGEL Editor's note: The writer is a member of the legislative committee of the Human Services Network, a Nevada coalition of nonprofit social-service groups.