A coalition of 15 Texas mayors signed on to a call for increasing taxpayer funding for various mental health programs.
The group, calling themselves the “Big City Mayors,” called “upon the Texas Legislature to make transformational investments in the state’s mental health system.”
“Despite progress over several sessions, Texas still ranks dangerously low on access to mental health services,” the organization claimed.
“Given the record surplus in funding for state government and with the base budgets of both the House and Senate released, we would offer the following remarks about key priority areas,” the statement continued.
The legislation priorities for mental health specifically emphasized community-based care, coordinated specialty care, crisis calls and response, loan forgiveness, and Medicaid coverage for new mothers.
“Many of these initiatives have received repeated, strong bipartisan support in both chambers of the Texas Legislature,” the mayors noted. “Whether we are Republicans or Democrats, local government is impacted.”
Altogether, the programs proposed by the mayoral delegation would require an additional $242.7 million of taxpayer money over the base budgets proposed by the House and Senate. The two chambers filed their preliminary budgetary bills late last month and totaled $288.7 billion, as reported by The Dallas Express.
“Based on the figures in the base budgets, it is clear that Legislators are taking the issue of access to mental healthcare seriously,” the press release added. “We look forward to working with you throughout this Legislative Session to make sure every Texan has access to the mental healthcare they need.”
Other state leaders have made expanding taxpayer funding for mental health-related programs a priority, such as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, as reported by The Dallas Express.
The following mayors signed on to the list of priorities:
- Ginger Nelson (Amarillo)
- Jim Ross (Arlington)
- Kirk Watson (Austin)
- Trey Mendez (Brownsville)
- Gerard Hudspeth (Denton)
- Oscar Leeser (El Paso)
- Mattie Parker (Fort Worth)
- Ron Jensen (Grand Prairie)
- Sylvester Turner (Houston)
- Rick Stopfer (Irving)
- Victor Treviño (Laredo)
- George Fuller (McKinney)
- John Muns (Plano)
- Ron Nirenberg (San Antonio)
- Joe Zimmerman (Irving)
Notably absent from this list is Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, who is a member of the group. However, it is possible that Mayor Johnson was unavailable to sign as he has recently been out of town attending the State of the Union address in Washington, D.C.
The Dallas Express reached out to the city for clarification but did not receive a response prior to publication.