We lost our money. The $35 million that we had from the Assembly's budget was not included in the joint Assembly/Senate one. The money for our bill was sacrificed to the power crisis' ravaging of the state's coffers.

We could still try and get AB 1421 through the Senate, but it would be a façade. Even if it passed, it would not get funding unless it was in the compromise budget between the Governor and Legislature. But it is now in neither side's proposals for that budget. AB 1421 requires PACT teams, which require money. Unlike last year's AB 1800 (which was chiefly a proposed change in the law), AB 1421 cannot become operative unless there is funding for it. We think you can see the problem.

We could go after Governor Davis for a spot in his budget, but it was his insistence on a $3 billion dollar government reserve that caused all the cost cutting in the first place.

As much as it pains us to tell you -- our bill is not going to pass this session. But, at the same time, neither is it dead.

Assemblywoman Thomson has turned it from a one year bill into a two year bill. That means that we have till the end of next year's legislative session to get it passed. And our place in the legislative process will remain right where it is today. Beginning next session AB 1421will still be just inside the Senate's door, having swept through three Assembly committees without a vote against it and then receiving an eye-catching 65-1 endorsement on the Assembly floor. So this is not an ending, but rather a pause.

AB 1421 will be back. It will still have the newspapers. It will still have the support of the Assembly. And, most of all, it will still have all of you. Without your efforts, AB 1421 would either never have been written or languishing in some Assembly committee instead of perched, waiting for next session. Thank you all for doing so much to help those lost to mental illness.

Next session's goal are obvious -- into the compromise budget, through the Senate, and decorated with Gray Davis' signature. They will all come. The only question is when.

And we forgot to mention that we still have one Helen Thomson. She is a fighter, as you will see in her press release below.

"Yesterday, the Senate members of the budget conference committee voted down funding for AB 1421, my legislation to establish a limited program for Assisted Outpatient Treatment for the severely mentally ill who refuse treatment. AB 1421 had already passed the Assembly by a 65-1 vote. Accordingly, the Assembly budget conferees proposed $10 million in funding for the intensive outpatient treatment services required by the bill. But Senators refused to concur.

The action taken by the Senate conferees not to fund these services, knowing full well that without funding in the budget the programs would not be implemented when the bill passes the Legislature, makes it clear to me that this legislation is not welcome by the Senate leadership, and the invitation to hear the bill at this time is, at best, a hollow one.

Although I am confident that a vast majority of senators would ultimately approve this measure if it were funded, I do not believe there is any point to dragging families and consumers through a torturous charade of public hearings in a hostile environment when a negative outcome has already been predetermined. Mental health advocates and the people of California deserve more than to be asked to perform a futile political exercise on an issue of such importance to public health and safety.

Instead, I will wait until next January to hear the bill in the Senate. In the following months I will work with the administration to include funding for this program in the Governor's Budget next year. At that time, with the Governor�s support, I expect we will have a more meaningful, honest, and productive dialogue in the Senate and, ultimately, win approval of this modest effort to provide long overdue treatment to the seriously mentally ill in California. I thank my assembly colleagues for their ongoing support."

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California Treatment Advocacy Coalition
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