EATON COUNTY, Mich. — Eaton County commissioners voted to reduce funding for Community Mental Health to the legal minimum during Friday's special budget meeting, sparking concerns from residents and some officials about potential impacts on mental health services.
- The cut reduces Community Mental Health funding from $570,000 to approximately $330,000.
- County officials noted that every local dollar spent brings in $9 in matching funds from the state.
- Some commissioners argued the funds should be redirected to the prosecutor's office, which is facing a backlog of cases.
WATCH: Eaton County debates mental health funding cuts amid budget crisis
I've been at all of the special budget meetings in Charlotte as Eaton County works to balance its budget. A big topic at Friday's meeting was how much to spend on mental health. I heard from residents about what cuts would mean for them and their families.
"Do you really want to be known as the people that cut mental health and put our county into a crisis?" one resident asked the board.
Another resident addressing the commissioners said, "You ladies and gentlemen are putting forward a dystopian view of the county."
Community Mental Health (CMH) offers mental health services to residents from around the county.
County officials said that according to a legal opinion, there's a required amount that has to be paid for when it comes to mental health, and the county pays outside group CMH to run that care.
A county official said every local dollar that is spent brings 9 matching dollars from the state.
"So $100,000 from Eaton County translates to $900,000 in state matches," the official said.
One question at the meeting was whether to keep paying CMH what they received last year, about $570,000, or cut their funding to the legal minimum of about $330,000.
A representative of Community Mental Health told commissioners that a proposed $240,000 cut would mean millions of dollars lost for the organization based on the state match.
"That would reduce service availability and services that we can offer. The extent of that is what we will have to analyze in the days to come," she said.
Commissioner Jacob Toomey brought up the state match in supporting restoring CMH's funding back to 100 percent.
"There's millions of dollars that we're leaving on the table for a relatively small investment from the county," Toomey said.
But not all were in agreement. Commissioner Brian Droscha wanted to put the money saved into services at the prosecutor's office.
"No matter what we put into mental health, it's still gonna come through the courts, and our prosecuting attorneys office, shouldn't we supplement them first, because they've got 7,000 cases that are open right now that they can't address," Droscha said.
The board ended up deciding to pay the legal minimum for CMH.
Board Chairperson Jim Mott defended the decision.
"My view is that we need to save ourself here at the county, if we get to a position where we have to relinquish control to the state because we cannot balance our budget, those cuts will be more drastic," Mott said.
But this decision isn't set in stone. Commissioner Brandon Haskell feels adjustments need to be made before the budget is set.
"This isn't the vote for the final budget itself, so I think if anyone was in here and disappointed with how it went, there's still some conversations we need to have behind the scenes," Haskell said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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