News : Supervisors hear about proposed mental health changes, gas tax hike

Big changes could be coming to one of the biggest budget areas of Benton County: Its mental health services.

Benton County CPC Mary Williams and Benton County's state legislators, State. Sen. Tim Kapucian and Rep. Dawn Pettengill, spoke to the supervisors during their meeting Tuesday morning about a new state law that seeks to replace the county system with a regional system.

Meetings on the issue have been taking place across the state, and it's too soon to tell just how the new law (Senate File 525) will affect the county.

Williams said the law offers some definite benefits, such as replacing the current system of "legal residency." Under that system, counties are required to pay for the care of patients determined to be residents of that county, but often do not have a say in which services to provide those patients.

But for now, said Williams, there are mostly questions about how the bill would affect Benton County. The county's mental health budget is approximately $2.5 million each year. Local leaders are concerned that a change to a regional system would force the county to absorb some of the costs of other counties. Linn County, for example, recently announced a large shortfall in its mental health budget.

"This is not an issue of Republicans vs. Democrats," Pettengill told the supervisors. "It's an issue of rural vs. urban legislators."

Kapucian told the county leaders that it is too soon to predict what will happen because the people who will be making the recommendations to the legislature in 2012 are still holding meetings to determine what those suggestions will be. Also, he said. the legislature is not at all required to follow those suggestions.

Gas tax increase possible in 2012

Kapucian has also been serving on the 2020 transportation advisory commission, which is suggesting an 8- to 10-cent gas tax increase.

Kapucian told the supervisors that a proposal for a federal gas tax increase is also pending, and he said he did not think Iowans could afford two increases in the gasoline tax.

There is an annual $220 million shortfall in funding for road repairs, said Kapucian, who said that a one-cent increase will raise approximately $22 million per year. One of the factors affecting the gas tax revenues is that people are driving more fuel-efficient cars, which means lower gas tax revenues.