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Area legislators wholeheartedly agree.
“Mental health’s time has come,” proclaimed Sen. Charles Waddell (D-Loudoun/Fairfax). “It’s been on the back burner for a while. We’ve had education, transportation. Now it’s mental health’s turn.”
Said Sen. Wiliam A. Truban (D-Fauquier/Clarke/Warren/Shenandoah): “They need plenty of help and they should get it. The programs, the training, the buildings need upgrading.”
Del. Kenneth B. Rollins (R-Loudoun/Fauquier), who as a judge had among his responsibilities the duty to institutionalize people, emphasized the need for the state to do a better job of preparing the mentally ill to be returned to the community and then provide the assistance needed to function there.
• Mental health probably will get a sizable infusion of new money, but the governor hasn’t indicated how much he thinks the system should get. j On strictly money matters, there is the question of the so-called $154 million budget surplus, created as a result of federal tax reform.
Some argue it doesn’t belong to the state and should be returned to the taxpayers, in part or whole. Others insist the surplus doesn’t exist and that the money should go to fund program needs.
Education is always a big ticket item, and one of the most expensive and newest proposed programs that will be considered is the estimated $5.5 million “family life” or sexual education program for public schools.
Del. Joan Munford (D-Blacksburg) thinks
94.9%