Editorial: Taking responsibility

Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007 | 7:23 a.m.

In another exploration into privatization of government services, Gov. Jim Gibbons' administration is considering whether to turn over some or all of the state's mental health hospitals to private companies.

The state has a problem hiring and keeping psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses, especially in rural Nevada, largely because of problems with pay and location.

Gibbons, who has previously proposed privatizing freeways through toll roads, told Las Vegas Sun's Carson City Bureau Chief Cy Ryan that on his recent tour of rural Nevada he found a "real issue" with the lack of services. He noted that the Legislature cut 28 mental health jobs in rural Nevada because they could not be filled and said people were "very concerned what the Legislature did."

Yes, this is a serious issue, but Gibbons is wrong to blame it all on the Legislature and think that privatizing the hospitals is the answer. The first thing he and his staff should do is confront reality. Gibbons' no-new-taxes pledge meant that the state didn't have enough money to pay for growth in a wide range of areas. Couple that with his backward priorities and there wasn't enough money for the things that really matter.

Gibbons never made mental health a priority. The priorities he held out for were a handful of pet projects that included a youth boot camp run by the Nevada National Guard, in which he once served. Meanwhile, real priorities, such as mental health, education and highway construction, were derailed.

Hoping private enterprise can pull the state out of this self-inflicted situation is foolish, especially because Nevada's last large-scale attempt at privatization - a women's state prison several years ago - was a dismal failure.

So far the governor's staff has yet to provide any reason why there is a need to privatize the mental health system. If the question is staffing, there may be more practical solutions, such as paying doctors and nurses better.

The bottom line is before he thinks about ceding his responsibility, Gibbons should take responsibility and do what is right and pay to fix the system.