Mental Health: County must act

King County has a chance to restore some sanity. Literally.

The County Council should embrace a plan to finance better mental health and chemical dependency services and court programs. It will do a world of good for individuals, the criminal justice system and public safety.

The county plan would provide service options other than jail for people whom police recognize are troubled, help youth with earlier intervention and expand addiction and mental health services for poor adults. The way to pay for the plan is few people's idea of a first choice: a .1 percent increase in the sales tax proposed by County Executive Ron Sims in his 2008 budget. But it's the only option the Legislature provided counties to deal with these problems. Spokane and at least six other counties have adopted the tax.

Councilman Bob Ferguson, budget committee chairman, plans to have benchmarks and a review date for the tax. Asked if the looming transportation sales tax ballot makes this the wrong time for a mental health tax, Ferguson said, "The answer is yes. And the fuller answer is that it is always the wrong time." He's so right.

Ferguson said he became convinced of the needs last year hearing public safety officials describe the impact on the entire criminal justice system. Detention director Reed Holtgeerts described the county jail as the state's second-largest mental health facility. But as long as politicians hesitate, lives are wrapped in unnecessary misery, jails become mental institutions, the justice system tries to cope with problems beyond its scope and the streets are home to ever more troubled souls. The council should put into action the good plans developed at its request. If not now, when?