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Budget Battle Will Include Suicide Prevention Funds

By Karen Kasler

Published June 21, 2019 at 11:47 PM EDT

Senate Finance Chair Matt Dolan (R-Chagrin Falls) and President Larry Obhof (R-Medina) talk to reporters after the budget passed unanimously in the Senate. [Karen Kasler] — Senate Finance Chair Matt Dolan (R-Chagrin Falls) and President Larry Obhof (R-Medina) talk to reporters after the budget passed unanimously in the Senate.

The Senate budget passed unanimously this week does not include $36 million that mental health and suicide prevention advocates were hoping would be restored.

That money would have been split between treatment and prevention for kids and anti-stigma multi-media campaigns.

Republican Senate Finance Chair Matt Dolan said senators believe in the cause that Gov. Mike DeWine’s budget planned to fund with that money, but instead put it into existing programs on prevention and mental health and into help for multi-system youth.

“I presume the governor is going to want at least a portion of that $36 million back. But I think when he sees where we spent it, hopefully that will give him pause to say, well, that’s a worthwhile endeavor as well.”

Gov. Mike DeWine’s $550 million for counseling, mental health and other wraparound services in low-income schools will help too, Dolan says. But Dolan and others are concerned about how that money would be administered, so the Senate diverted $125 million added by the House for vouchers and aid to fast-growing districts.