All members of a county committee hailed an opening request for Miami-Dade’s long-delayed mental health center but then sent the plan to the county commission without their seal of approval because it didn’t show that the center could run five years at no added cost to taxpayers.
All agreed last week that a national opioid settlement would fund the first two years of the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery, which has been more than 20 years in the making, but three of the four objected that operating costs of $10 million or more for the following three years might require some tax funding.
The county has investment more than $51 million to update and equip the seven-story center, which would be used to divert and treat severely mentally ill inmates from the county jail, where about 70% of the 4,400 persons incarcerated are on the mental health caseload.
Proponents cited huge cost savings for the jail when inmates are diverted to the center, grants of aid that would flow, and a federal benefits stream that isn’t available for jail inmates as among funds that could offset any added costs of the mental health center. But after two years of using only opioid settlement money for funding, none of those revenues would be sure things. That uncertainty drew objections.
“I feel like this could be a gamechanger for the nation,” said Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez, but “how are we going to pay for this?”
Why, asked Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins, do the financial projections for the center show only its first two years after 20 years of planning? “What happens when those hypotheticals don’t pan out?… Where do we get the $10 million from that we know we are going to need in order to fund this incredibly noble and noteworthy project as early as three years?”
Carladenise Edwards, the county’s chief administrative officer, told commissioners that while the county expects grants to help fund the center, they aren’t firm commitments.
“We thought it was most responsible to be as conservative as possible and show a deficit because it is more than likely that inflation, not just with this program but for every single program that we run, will make the administration and the [county commission] have to make really difficult decisions over what we prioritize in future years,” Ms. Edwards said. “We are recommending that we prioritize this right now.”
Ms. Cohen Higgins pressed on with her question, asking why after 20 years the center plan does not show “$1 worth of savings…. Instead, all we see are financial deficits,” with county projections of $93 million general fund shortfall as soon as 2027.
Among promised funds to help the center. Rick Beasley, executive director of CareerSource South Florida, told commissioners his organization plans to spend $1 million in the building for employment training services for patients. Former Judge Steve Leifman, who has made the center his two-decade-long cause, cited City of Miami pledges for the center. Appropriations Committee head Raquel Regalado said Miami Beach also has pledged to aid the center.
In the end, the committee sent the legislation that would open the center to the full county commission without its recommendation with the understanding that the pledges from Miami and Miami Beach had to be in hand before a final vote and that some form of financial calculation of economic benefits would be attached to the legislation.
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