Colorado ranks among the worst states in the nation for mental health care. According to Forbes, our state is the sixth-worst in treating adults with mental illness. And we are the third-worst at providing mental health insurance for youth. That’s pretty embarrassing.
While compelling arguments can be made for the federal and state governments to provide the mental health care that Coloradans need and deserve, don’t hold your breath. The federal government — with increasingly bizarre proclamations of ways to provide less physical and mental health care for Americans — is not the place to look for leadership these days. And a billion-dollar hole in the state’s budget means that counties and cities in Colorado are on their own for a while.
So, the Boulder County commissioners unanimously placed on this fall’s ballot a proposal that we tax ourselves to pay for mental health treatment for county residents. To be sure, the tax measure is only a stopgap, intended to last three years. But it will allow the county to fund the treatment that the state and feds can’t or won’t…