The Douglas County Courthouse.

The Douglas County Commission reached consensus Wednesday on a 2018 budget that would include a 1.916 mill levy increase and fund $1.98 million in behavioral health initiatives.

That mill levy increase is 0.155 mills beyond the 1.761-mill increase the state’s tax lid legislation allowed the county to authorize for 2018 nonexempt spending without voter approval. Added spending on exempt public safety items, including $211,113 for three new sheriff’s deputy positions, explains the difference in those numbers.

In total, the proposed budget includes $3.91 million in new spending and a total mill levy of 46.008 mills.

“I feel confident this budget is a reflection of the values of the community and the commission,” Commission Chair Mike Gaughan said. “I allowed us to invest nearly every available dollar the tax lid afforded us into behavioral health programs.”

Among the behavioral health spending items in the budget were $400,000 to help Lawrence Memorial Hospital build a behavioral health crisis stabilization unit and $900,000 to hire 4 new psychiatrists, two for Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center and two for Heartland Community Health.

Although Commissioner Michelle Derusseau said she supported the behavioral health initiatives in the budget, she requested cuts in two of the programs so that the budget’s overall mill levy increase could be limited to 1.761 mills. Continued county tax increases were exacerbating the county’s affordable housing problems, she said.

“Over the last eight years, the county has increased its mill levy 11.2 mills,” she said. “I’d like to get back to a 1.76-mill increase. Exempt or nonexempt (spending) doesn’t mean anything to taxpayers.”

In her request, which was overruled by Gaughan and Commissioner Nancy Thellman, Derusseau suggested two items to cut: a $397,000 line item to fund a multi-agency response team to serve those recovering from a mental health crisis and a $150,000 program designed to allow people to get residential detoxification treatment in other Kansas counties. County voters could approve complete funding for the programs as part of a referendum of a future mental health crisis intervention center, she said.

“I fully support the services, but I’d like to see us start small and expand,” she said. “It’s always easier to grow than to cut back.”

Thellman, who was part of the effort to identify mental health service gaps in the county, defended both initiatives. The multi-agency team was meant to ensure that those leaving Lawrence Memorial Hospital’s behavioral health crisis stabilization unit, which is set to open in January 2018, would get the services needed to transition to the next step of their treatment, she said.

“In the long term, we’ll find this is a generous start but not an unreasonable start,” she said. “We’ve been thinking big. I think we need to fund as generously as we can.”

There is no residential detox center in the county, Thellman said. The program to send people who don’t have insurance or qualify for Medicaid to facilities in other counties would provide information on the demand for such a unit in a future crisis intervention center.

Thellman similarly defended a $54,000 line item to help convert warehouse space into cold-weather overnight accommodations at the Lawrence Community Shelter. That, too, could provide information about gaps in behavioral health services, she said in support of the measure. The funding would be dependent on the community shelter getting approval from the city to modify its special-use permit to allow added overnight visitors from October through March.

County commissioners expressed hope last week that the city of Lawrence would help with the shelter’s proposal. County Administrator Craig Weinaug said he confirmed from discussions last week with Lawrence City Manager Tom Markus that the city’s 2018 budget would not include funding for the project, but he made clear the city remained a partner in the funding the shelter’s annual operating budget. Weinaug said the city’s 2018 budget would provide the shelter with $184,000 for ongoing operations, while the county would provide $115,000 next year.

At Gaughan’s suggestion, commissioners brought the budget’s nonexempt spending within tax lid constraints through a $94,000 reduction in capital improvement project spending. That reduction pegged the increase in 2018 CIP spending to the tax lid formula.

Weinaug said he would double-check the budget’s figures before bringing it back for the County Commission’s consideration at its July 12 meeting. At that meeting, commissioners could approve it for publication and schedule a public hearing on the 2018 budget before its formal adoption.