MHSA/PROPOSITION 63
Proposition 63 was passed by the voters of California in 2004 to add a one percent tax on incomes over a million dollars. People often called this the tax we would all like to pay because you have to have income over a million dollars before you pay any of the tax and only that portion of ones income is paid. While this represents only about 1/10 of one percent of California’s population these people earn almost half of all income. Accordingly the tax is already generating between $1 and $2 billion per year. These funds can only be spent on mental health services or other activities designed to prevent mental illnesses from becoming severe by identifying the mental illness early in its onset.
Virtually all the money is allocated to California’s 58 county mental health departments. Mental health departments, must complete plans with extensive public review for spending the various components of the act. These plans are then reviewed by state officials. CAYEN expects to be active in both the development and review of county plans as well as state policies and rules that guide and direct use of these funds.
Transition age youth have been the people most adversely affected by the historical fail first public mental health system. Children tend to have to fail in school or be removed from the home through child welfare or the criminal justice system before anyone recognizes that a mental health problem may be the underlying cause of the child’s actions. A primary purpose of Proposition 63 is to identify problems in children at the earliest possible stage and provide the services and supports when they can be done at a more modest level.
Similarly the most severe adult mental health problems such as suicidal depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder most often occur for the first time during transition age youth years or ages 16 to 25. However, studies show that people suffer from these conditions for a average of 6 to 8 years before anyone recognizes that a mental illness is the problem. By that time most people have lost their abilities to succeed in school or at work and are often homeless or have been incarcerated due to crimes related to attempts to deal with their mental health problem through self medicating with alcohol or drugs.
The primary purpose of the Mental Health Services Act is to get these youth the type of care that will help them before they reach this stage by identifying their problem as being a mental health problem that can be addressed before one reaches this level.