Voters are often challenged with a contest of ideas focused around preserving "The American Dream". This dream, which was symbolized at times by a dog, a car, and a small house with two kids showed that the American Dream was about the need to possess things and gain wealth and stability. Nothing necessarily wrong with wealth and stability.
Still, the true American Dream is more often evaluated by the test: will my children have a better life than I did? For hundreds of years, this has been the backstory. Development of better medicine, cures for diseases, finer products, all of it was in large part about making the world better for future generations.
In Kansas, that dream is most certainly at risk. Republicans see it as well, and have decided with his election secured now is the time to ask Sam Brownback to back off:
http://www.hinemanforkansas.org/...
But think about this: the entire budgets for public safety and general government could be eliminated and we still would not have eliminated the $648.3 million budget deficit for fiscal year 2016. The budgets for all elected statewide offices and cabinet-level departments could be eliminated, all legislative functions be defunded, highway patrol and KBI abolished, and all state prisoners let out on the streets, and we still would not have totally eliminated the hole in the budget.
Hineman, a Republican representing the 118th effectively sums up the dire situation that the state of Kansas is in. The impact now on the future generations of Kansas is starting to become clear, and it isn't pretty.
While many issues in Kansas face real problems in light of the financial situation it is often easier to relate to if we take specific issues and delve into how this impacts the residents in Kansas... and their hopes for the American dream.
It is interesting sometimes the resolutions we make for new years. For a great number of Americans, it boils down to things like lose weight. Get a better job. Get married. Or any number of things. Survival of their children isn't often part of that dream. In the current state of Kansas though, the big dreams of our future - and for families who have hopes for their children, well, those dreams are being taken away.
This last year, Kansas began to look at how to help manage this budget shortfall, and a part of this went into effect in the student education legislation, which terms children out at 18, long before many special education children were used to 'getting out'. This buffer space provided time to wait for placement in case services and in some cases long term residential facilities or long term assisted living communities. Putting more people with mental disability at risk.
http://www.kansascity.com/...
When Osawatomie is approaching capacity, it no longer will accept patients who’ve agreed to voluntary commitment for treatment, and it will triage, based on their diagnosis, patients who are involuntarily committed because they pose a threat to themselves or others.
Community mental health centers, which provide initial care to people in crisis and refer patients to hospitals, will be responsible for finding alternative sources of care.
That will leave many mental health centers searching for resources that have grown increasingly scarce as more psychiatric hospital facilities have closed, said Kyle Kessler, executive director of the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas.
“It’s a significant concern. They’re going to do their best to provide treatment,” Kessler said. But patients “could be waiting for services in emergency rooms or jails. That’s the last thing we want.”
It is as though the mental health care providers could see it coming:
http://ksn.com/...
DODGE CITY, Kansas– Rickey Schweitzer had been in the Ford County Jail since November 10th, but on New Year’s Day jail staff say they found him dead after an apparent suicide.
After allegedly attacking a Dillon’s employee at a Dodge City Dillons, Schweitzer was ordered by a judge to have a competency assessment, but for him and other inmates who need either competency or mental health evaluation, they have to wait for a bed to open up at one of two state hospitals. He was meant to go to Larned State Hospital, but there was no bed available to him.
Jail staff say he hadn’t exhibited any signs of suicidal thoughts. They assess inmates when they arrive at the jail and then monitor their behavior on a daily basis.
After $15 million was cut from mental health funding, some money was meant to be redirected to departments in need. The Kansas Department of Corrections was approved for $3 million in 2013.
“We have a range of mental health issues represented by the inmates in our system. The Kansas Department of Corrections has become the largest mental health provider in the state,” said Spokesperson for DOC Jeremy Barclay.
The county level however, has seen zero dollars, and with cuts there are fewer hospital beds available as well.
The situation in Kansas definitely doesn't reflect Brownback's "The Sun is Shining" campaign slogan, and debt - which must be resolved by year end -
could hit a billion.
Ray Merrick, Republican Speaker of the House, has avowed that all of this remains a "spending problem" and more cuts are coming.
http://www.khi.org/...
Merrick, a conservative, said he believes the state should rely primarily on spending cuts to avert projected budget deficits of $279 million this year and $715 million next year.
“That’s where I am right now. As things progress, we’ll see what happens,” Merrick said. “But I still think we spend too much.”
When asked what he would cut, Merrick said: “I really haven’t looked at it yet. That’s what one of my priorities will be after today.”
Some Republicans in the Senate have said they might be willing to delay additional scheduled cuts in income tax rates and require some business owners to resume paying taxes.
It's little consolation to the families of those who battle mental illness. When the dollar amount provided to county fall backs in jails is already
ZERO, and hospital beds are rapidly disappearing..
Matthew 25: 35-40 "‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ "
It's easy to resolve to make changes. To hope for big things. But we all must hope and work to do better for those in need.