鈥淚t was all treatment, treatment, treatment, treatment, treatment. The entire campaign,鈥� San Francisco Democratic Senator Scott Wiener said at a committee hearing on Tuesday about Proposition 36.
About 70% of California voters approved the ballot measure in November to increase penalties for drug and theft-related crimes. The measure also opens the door to dismiss some felony offenses if the individual completes treatment. It took effect in December, but lawmakers still have to find the money for it.
Wiener said he can get on board with it if the state can find more resources for mental health and substance use disorder treatment.
鈥淲ell, I'm all for treatment of behavioral health,鈥� he said. 鈥淭o me it makes a lot of sense and we should have been doing this for years.鈥�
The nonprofit California Health Care Foundation that only about 10% of residents experiencing substance use disorder were receiving treatment.
San Benito County Sheriff Eric Taylor told lawmakers at the hearing that jails have become the de facto source of treatment in his county.
鈥淚t doesn't mean that our behavioral health staff in our county and our director don't want to or don't care,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey don't have the funding. They don't have the support. They can't keep staff.鈥�
Governor Gavin Newsom鈥檚 budget proposal this year doesn鈥檛 fund the broad scope of Proposition 36 expenses. It does account for a rise in the prison population because of the measure, but doesn鈥檛 set aside funding for additional behavioral health, court or law enforcement costs.
San Joaquin County Chief Probation Officer Steve Jackson said he鈥檚 already seeing the consequences of that.
鈥淲hat many of us are doing is essentially expanding on the workload of others or as I like to say robbing Peter to pay Paul, so you take away from something that another officer is doing to implement Prop 36,鈥� he explained.
Many lawmakers 鈥� both Democrat and Republican 鈥� say the state needs to find those funds soon. That includes Republican Senator Roger Niello from Rocklin.
鈥淚 am hopeful that the legislature is going to be persuaded by the will of the voters and fund this need of Proposition 36, again, particularly with regard to drug and mental health treatment,鈥� he said.
鈥淭here's no question that we're going to implement this,鈥� Merced Democratic Senator Anna Caballero said at the hearing. But she added that it鈥檒l be more complicated than standing up a law passed by legislators.
鈥淧ropositions are always problematic because you don't get to control some of the details once they're in law,鈥� she added. 鈥淲hen we do legislation, they go into effect down the road so that you have a little bit of time to react to it.鈥�
The governor and legislators are required to pass a budget in June.