Fulton State Mental Hospital Archives

House Budget Chair: money for new Fulton hospital unlikely in supplemental budget

January 29, 2014 By Mike Lear

The House Budget Committee is not likely to put $14-million dollars in the supplemental budget toward a new state mental hospital at Fulton as Governor Jay Nixon (D) has proposed, but the House will support a way to pay for it this year.

That’s according to Representative Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood), the chairman of the House Budget Committee, which held a hearing on the Governor’s proposal Wednesday morning to explore whether it is constitutional and gather more details on it.

House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (Photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Stream says one thing he thinks after that hearing is that there is no need to put money in the supplemental budget, which lawmakers observed is primarily intended for emergencies and unforseen needs.

“No dirt is going to be turned on any project, whenever its approved, until next spring,” Stream says of the plans for a new Fulton hospital. “So, I don’t think we need to put anything in the supplemental.”

Nixon proposed putting that $14-million in the supplemental budget as the first payment on the debt the state would incur if the legislature moves forward with his plan, to issue about $189-million in appropriation bonds. Nixon proposes another $14-million be put in the fiscal year 2015 budget that the legislature will approve later in the session, that would have been the second payment.

Stream says he still has questions as to whether Nixon’s plan to use appropriation bonds is constitutional. Some lawmakers, led by Representative Chris Kelly (D-Columbia), say there is no provision in the state Constitution allowing for the use of those bonds, which if authorized by the legislature would be issued without a public vote.

But, Stream says, that remains an option.

“If we were pushed against the back wall and that was the only option I think we would probably go with it,” says Stream. “We want this project to move forward. It’s a desperate, desperate need to [build a new state mental hospital at Fulton].”

Stream says the other two options are to pursue the issuance of revenue bonds, which would require a public vote, or to simply appropriate the money for the hospital in the next three fiscal years’ budgets.

Whichever option is chosen, Stream says, is the only question.

“We’re going to make a decision this budget year,” says Stream of finding a way to pay for a new Fulton state mental hospital. “Certainly in the House. I can’t speak for the Senate but in the House, we’re going to vote out some type of a proposal.”

Committee will explore constitutionality of Nixon plan for new Fulton hospital

January 24, 2014 By Mike Lear

The House Budget Committee will hold a hearing next week to discuss whether Governor Jay Nixon’s proposed plan to fund a new Fulton State Hospital meets constitutional muster.

Representative Chris Kelly (tan jacket) asks a question of Budget Director Linda Luebbering during a hearing. (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Nixon proposes using about $189 million dollars in appropriation bonds to pay for replacement of the current hospital, whose current buildings date back as far as 1937 and is widely considered to be outdated and dangerous.

Nixon has proposed in his supplemental budget the first bond payment of $14-million dollars with another $14-million in the budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 representing the second payment. Nixon Administration Budget Director Linda Luebbering says that would provide authority needed from the legislature to work with Missouri Development Finance Board to do the bonds. The House Budget Committee would be the first panel to have a say in whether to keep that money in the supplemental budget.

Since before the Governor announced his plan, Representative Chris Kelly (D-Columbia) has called the use of appropriation bonds unconstitutional because they are approved by the legislature without the approval of voters.

Kelly voiced that concern Thursday in a House Budget Committee hearing, and told Lueberring he wants to know what the constitutional basis for such borrowing is.

Luebbering told Kelly, “We’ll have attorneys provide the entire committee with information about the previous Supreme Court case as well as other information.”

“Let’s do that in public,” Kelly responded.

Kelly quickly learned he would get his wish. Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) and Luebbering talked after the hearing about finding a time to schedule that hearing.

Stream had previously said he is alright with the use of appropriation bonds for the project, but he told Missourinet that some of the concerns Kelly raised make him want to know more.

Particularly, Kelly told the committee that if a future legislature would fail to make a payment on appropriation bonds, the state’s AAA-bond credit rating would be impacted.

Kelly said it would, “go right down the sink, wouldn’t it? Taking with it the credit rating of every school district in every city in the state.”

That got the attention of Stream, a former Kirkwood School Board member.

“We issued revenue bonds a couple of times and it always went to a vote of the people,” Stream says of his time as a school board member. “I was going on the basis of what the Governor’s office had said about the constitutionality … that they’d checked it out already. Representative Kelly seems to disagree with that so we’ll get the people into the room, discuss it and then go forward from there.”

The Governor and Luebbering have noted that numerous state projects, including the construction of the Truman Office Building in Jefferson City and the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center at Bonne Terre have been funded using appropriation bonds. Nixon also says that the state’s bond council has signed off on the plan.

Nixon also cites a ruling by the Missouri Supreme Court also upholds the use of appropriation bonds, but Kelly says he’s seen that ruling and believes it only supports the use of revenue bonds.

State Budget Director explains releases and continued withholds

September 12, 2013 By Mike Lear

Governor Jay Nixon has released $215-million dollars out of $400-million he withheld pending the fate of his veto of a tax cut bill. The rest is being held onto while his Budget Director considers the impacts of several issues.

State Budget Director Linda Luebbering

The largest amounts of money released are $66.4 million for K-12 education, $45.7-million for Medicaid provider rate increases, $33.7-million for higher education and $23.1-million for the Department of Mental Health.

Despite this release of money for education, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education says the foundation formula remains about $600-million below its target funding level.

Budget Director Linda Luebbering says there is now some uncertainty as to how much money Missouri will receive from the tobacco settlement this year. That issue was just raised yesterday by the Attorney General’s Office.

A 3-judge arbitration panel arbitration panel has ruled in favor of tobacco companies in claims that Missouri and five other states failed to diligently enforce state tobacco laws in 2003. That makes those companies eligible for a refund under the terms of the 1998 settlement.

“We were assuming we would have $130-million from the tobacco settlement for the current year, so the impact could be anywhere from zero to $130-million on the current budget.”

It is not known how much might be lost in the current budget, or when.

“We were only counting on $130-million so if it’s more than that it would have to be a loss in a future year, basically. It could be higher but for the current fiscal year the budget impact is $130-million. The way they do it, we don’t actually cut them a check. They just don’t send us new money, so it’s an offset.”

Other issues are related to legislation that either passed, or didn’t.

The budget drafters assumed nearly $52-million dollars with the passage of a tax amnesty bill and about $60-million related to comprehensive tax credit reform. Neither of those passed.

Those issues combined with the possible impact of the tobacco settlement ruling could add up to $217-million dollars in the Fiscal Year 2014 budget.

The legislature did pass a bill that offers a new way to corporations to claim taxes, and Luebbering says the administration believes that will have a negative impact on revenue at least in the short run.

“Revenue’s best estimate right now is around $29-million. How accurate that is and how much of that would occur in the current fiscal year, we’re still working through.”

The $185-million still being withheld is tied to capital improvement projects, most of those found in a supplemental budget bill, HB 19. Those amounts still being withheld include $60-million of $70-million appropriated for facilities maintenance and repair, $46.5-million of $50-million for renovations at the State Capital, $38-million dollars for a new Department of Transportation building on the site of the decommissioned Missouri State Penitentiary, $17.5-million of $20-million for State Parks, $11-million of $13-million for the design of a replacement for the Fulton State Mental Hospital.

The Governor is also withholding $1-million dollars to rebuild the Pike-Lincoln Technical Center. He had vetoed that line of the supplemental budget bill but the legislature overturned that veto yesterday.

Senate Committee presents laundry list of state repair, maintenance needs

July 30, 2013 By Mike Lear

The Senate Interim Committee on Capital Improvement will prepare a report by the end of this year for the rest of the senate. The Office of Administration has shown it a list dating to August 6 of last year of 20,782 repair or maintenance projects that would cost the state $662,032,616.

Data provided by the Office of Administration notes that with additional costs in addressing those needs the total would rise to between $700- and $800 million.

Committee Chairman Sen. David Pearce (R-Warrensburg) says the numbers don’t surprise him.

“Serving on the appropriations committee I’ve seen the huge need that’s out there, but it’s a great need,” he said. “We really haven’t had a capital improvement bill since 2001 and so some of these projects have just been put off and put off and put off, and so as elected officials it’s up to us to take a look at what these long-term needs are and make some tough decisions.”

The committee was told that for the last decade or more, the amounts appropriated for capital improvements by the legislature have been withheld by governors. This year, that included money for remediation at the State Capitol, the construction of a new Department of Transportation building at the site of the old Missouri State Penitentiary and for planning a new State Mental Hospital at Fulton, among other items in supplemental budget bill HB 19.

Pearce says withholds like that are why the list of needs has grown so long.

“It never gets cheaper to actually build buildings, and so it’s kind of going in not a very organized manner and so if we can do better than that I think that’d be better,” Pearce said. “Probably I would think most of this money that’s being withheld will be released but until then you can’t actually spend it.”

Pearce says the Committee’s goal in meeting is to prepare a report that can be used by legislators in preparing bills and the budget. First, he says, it will meet at least three more times including in September when lawmakers are in Jefferson City for the veto session. It is then that it will visit what he sees as the top capital need in the state, that mental hospital in Fulton.

“That is an antiquated facility. It’s bad for the patients, it’s bad for the employees and Missouri can do better and it serves the entire state, and so I would think that has to be our number one priority. This committee’s is going to take a look at that and so we’re going to tour it and try to come up with some ways to have a new state mental health hospital.”

Additional hearings will take place August 26 in St. Louis and October 9 in the Kansas City area, with one other possible hearing to be set.

The Committee also spent about 30 minutes in the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City. The prison closed in September, 2004 and plans to renovate the site have been at a standstill since.

Pearce says he does hope to see the historic buildings on the site saved.

“This [prison and its history] will never happen again, and so it’s very important to save what you can,” he said. “Obviously on this facility there are a lot of old buildings that it’s already been determined are not worth saving but there are some that are of tremendous historical significance that, not only here in Jefferson City but around the state, that we need to take a look at and see if they can be preserved.”

The Committee was told that a state law created the Prison Redevelopment Commission, who then created a redevelopment plan for the prison property. It was shown where, according to the plan, that Transportation Department building would be constructed if the money is released, in an area set aside for state office buildings and away from the structures considered historic.

The Office of Administration says money has been secured for the next phase of demolition on the prison site, and 9 buildings not considered historic are slated to be demolished as early as next spring.

A request to talk to Office of Administration staff about the current status of that redevelopment plan was not answered by the time this story was posted, but earlier versions of the plan are available online.

Mental Health Director talks budget withholds, Medicaid expansion

July 8, 2013 By Mike Lear

The Department of Mental Health could take a $68 million hit to its budget if money withheld by Governor Jay Nixon is not released at some point.

Mental Health Department Director Keith Schafer (photo courtesy; Missouri Department of Mental Health)

Director Keith Schafer says $28 million of General Revenue was withheld. That money and the programs it supports draw down federal dollars, which account for the other $40 million. He says that’s how much the Department stands to lose if the legislature votes in September to overturn the Governor’s veto of House Bill 253. If that veto stands, he is hopeful that money will be released.

Of that $28 million, $20 million would go to mental health provider rate increases.

Schafer explains, “Our mental health providers are pretty significantly behind in terms of keeping up with inflation with their rates.”

$2 million was withheld that would go to services for non-Medicaid eligible individuals. Schafer says that includes, “about 500 adults in need of things like alcohol and drug abuse treatment, about 90 kids in need of a whole range of mental health services.”

$4 million was withheld for the Department in the state employee pay plan and $2 million for expenses and equipment.

Schafer says some important money was left in the budget, though. A $10 million increase proposed by the Governor in January remains in place to train professionals how to recognize early warnings signs of mental illness, to train law enforcement in mental health crisis intervention, to increase services at community health centers and to teach families how to care for loved ones with mental illness.

Also supported is a program called Disease Management 3700 that deals with people with serious, persistent mental illness and chronic, serious health conditions that are on the Medicaid rolls.

“What you’ll find is those people cost the state a lot of money and their outcomes are not very strong … we have begun to track them and provide better care coordination for those folks.”

The Governor also withheld $13 million in a supplemental budget bill for capital improvements that would pay for the design of a new State Mental Hospital at Fulton.

Many lawmakers echoed discussions taking place nationally about improving mental health care in light of incidence such as the shootings in Sandy Hook, Connecticut that left 20 children at a school and 8 others dead. Those discussions often focus on a need for earlier diagnosis and treatment of mental illness in young people.

Schafer says that $10 million dollar increase will help, but says the best way for the Department to reach young people earlier will be for Missouri to adopt Medicaid expansion.

“Had the state extended Medicaid to individuals up to 138 percent of the poverty level an awful lot of young people we’re talking about would have become immediately eligible for those services just based on income. We could have intervened much, much quicker and much earlier, so I’m still hopeful that will happen.”

Schafer estimates if Medicaid expansion is adopted in Missouri, at least 50,000 more people could benefit from greater mental health treatment.

“Because the issue is so large, it would be very difficult for the legislature to make a dramatic impact outside of the Medicaid extension program.”

So far, three legislative committees are going to study Medicaid reform and expansion during the legislative interim. Schafer says his Department expects to be very engaged in the work of those committees, beginning this afternoon when the Senate Interim Committee on Medicaid Transformation and Reform meets.

Democrats rail on proposal of new state office building (VIDEO)

May 13, 2013 By Mike Lear

The Governor says the priorities of legislative Republican leadership are “out of whack.”

Governor Jay Nixon

Governor Jay Nixon (D) is critical of the state legislature’s approval of proposals to cut individual and corporate income taxes and repeal a tax break for low-income seniors in rental housing, particularly in light of something it included in a supplemental spending bill, HB19.

“This is a legislature that decided to add to its budget $38 million to build a state office building for bureaucrats that I didn’t ask for.”

The Governor refers to 38-million dollars for a new office building to be built on the site of the old Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City, presumably to house the Transportation Department and make room for state offices now housed in leased property. House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) says that would save the state money, perhaps enough to recoup its investment in 7 to 10 years.

That could also free up space in the current Transportation Department Building next to the Capitol for some staff and other offices now housed in the Capitol. Republican lawmakers say that means more room for legislators’ offices and staff and an opportunity to make the Capitol more compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Nixon says when considering the legislature sent him the rental tax credit repeal, as well as an operating budget that would make him choose between passing that repeal or cutting funding to a program that benefits developmentally disabled children, those arguments aren’t good enough.

“Let them tell that to the First Steps folks. Let them tell that to the parents who don’t know whether their disabled kid, starting July 1, is going to get the necessary services to live a normal life. Let them tell that to the senior citizen who they put a risk to have to pay more taxes next year than they paid this year even though they’re on fixed income. Let them make that argument about how they need a shiny new building to those Missourians.”

During debate on that supplemental spending bill, Representative Jeff Roorda (D-Barnhart) raised similar criticisms.

“I can’t imagine that we can do this with a straight face. Approve HB 19 when we’ve just eliminated this tax credit. By the way: between that $38 million on that new building, the $50 million we’re sinking in [The Capitol], more than enough to pay for that tax credit, which has worked great in this state since the ’70s.”

Majority Floor Leader John Diehl defended the proposal to cut that renters’ tax credit, one that he said most legislators would not have voted to create in the first place.

“One of the most difficult things we do is eliminate a government program. Government programs are pretty easy to create, they’re pretty tough to eliminate.”

Despite his criticisms, Nixon has not said whether he will veto any part of those bills.

Watch the Governor’s media conference below:

House and Senate budget makers spar over surplus ahead of conference

April 30, 2013 By Mike Lear

Key Republicans in the House and the Senate are squaring off over the next state spending plan days before the two chambers will meet in conference to work out their differences on it.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kurt Schafer (left) and House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (photos courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

House budget makers want to stick to the Consensus Revenue Estimate, an estimate for state revenue that the Senate, House and Governor agree to before the session begins to base their budget proposals on.

House Speaker Tim Jones (R-Eureka) says to exceed that estimate is to break tradition.

“The CRE is there for a reason,” Jones says. “It’s there to keep all three parties honest to a number agreed upon at the beginning of the process and that number should not be a moving goal post just because the revenue forecast changed.”

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) says that argument is “absurd” and accuses the House members of either not understanding or not wanting to acknowledge how the process works.

He says state revenue has gained more than $400 million more than projected, and says the legislature needs to account for it.

“That’s not saying ‘spend all the money’,” he says, “and especially not spend it in the operating budget, but if the money exists you can’t bury your head in the sand and act like it doesn’t exist, give it back to the Governor, who literally within one day will make that money disappear into the state agencies, and we’ll have no idea where it went.”

Schaefer says that money should be spent on capital needs, such as the building of a new state mental hospital in Fulton that estimates say will cost $211 million.

House Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stream (R-Kirkwood) says in an earlier conversation with Senate he was not asked about the idea of using the revenue surplus for one-time capital needs.

“That was not proposed,” Stream says. “… If we’re talking about one-time capital improvements, that’s in a separate bill and we’ll discuss that after we pass the budget.”

Schaefer says his chamber’s budget proposal is more transparent because all but four estimated amounts or “E’s” have been removed, so it more accurately reflects what is actually spent by government agencies. He also accuses Rep. Chris Kelly (D-Columbia), who also spoke on the House floor in defense of holding to the CRE, of wanting to take the Estimate in order to give the Governor the chance to spend the $400 million that has come in above projection.

“That’s a political determination, and I understand that, but I think it would be irresponsible of us … with the public’s money to not be transparent,” Kelly says.

Cuts to federal money for Public Safety still an issue

Jones continued on the House floor his criticism of cuts of more than $20 million in federal emergency response grants. He says that jeopardizes protections for Missourians and goes beyond the issues regarding the scanning, retaining and sharing with the federal government of personal information from Missourians by state agencies.

“I think we have to be very concerned in our zeal for the truth to not get to a point where we start to look shrill about things or obsessed to the point where we end up cutting off our arm to spite our face,” Jones says. “I think this may have been an instance, it appears, where the bridge went too far. I hope it was a mistake on behalf of the Senate.”

Schaefer says that cut was no mistake.

“When we had our hearings on that federal, pass-through money, [The Department of] Public Safety could not tell us what they were spending that money on,” Schaefer says. “It would be patently absurd for the General Assembly to give spending authority to any agency, whether it’s state money or federal money, who can not come in and tell the appropriators for the public how they’re spending the money.”

Schaefer says he hopes to get answers from Public Safety regarding how that money is spent when the Department appears again in front of his committee at noon on Wednesday.

The House and Senate will go to conference later this week to sort out the differences in their budget proposals.

House subcommittee approves $1.2 billion bond proposal

March 13, 2013 By Mike Lear

A House budget subcommittee has passed a proposal to have the state issue $1.2 billion in general obligation bonds to pay for projects at colleges and universities, state parks and buildings and other infrastructure needs.

Representatives Chris Kelly (foreground) and Lincoln Hough are the chairman and co-chairman of the House Appropriations Committee on Infrastructure and Job Creation.

The measure next goes to the full House Budget Committee. If it clears the legislature it would require voter approval.

The Committee has not yet debated a list of projects that could receive proceeds from the bond issuance. A resolution has been drawn up containing that list, but it will not be discussed until lawmakers return from next week’s Spring Break.

See the proposed resolution with the list of projects the bond proceeds could support.

Some committee members say Governor Jay Nixon wants the legislature to pass a proposal that would use revenue bonds. Committee chairman Chris Kelly (D-Columbia) opposes that avenue.

He believes under the state Constitution, such bonds are not meant to be issued for projects that do not generate revenue. Since the project list includes things that do not generate revenue, he doesn’t think revenue bonds would be acceptable.

Kelly acknowledges the state has used revenue bonds for non-revenue bearing projects before, and he knows there are lawyers that disagree with his assessment.

“I think these are the same lawyers who would say, ‘You may bond on the premise that you can mine green cheese on the Moon and sell it. So, I do not give much credibility to lawyers who say the State of Missouri can issue revenue bonds for non-revenue projects. Including the Governor.”

The proposal was amended to add a revolving fund of between $40 million and $60 million dollars for public schools to tap into for maintenance projects, and to require a cost-share from colleges and universities.

It also would create a “Taxpayer Protection Commission” of five members appointed by the Governor, the Senate President Pro-Tem and the Speaker of the House, to oversee management of the bond proceeds.

House Committee to consider parameters, list of targets for bonding proposal

March 5, 2013 By Mike Lear

The state House Committee preparing a more than $1 billion bond proposal will consider the first on-the-record list of projects that might support, next week.

Representative Chris Kelly (D-Columbia, left) and Representative Lincoln Hough (R-Springfield) are the chair and co-chair, respectively, of the House Appropriations Committee on Infrastructure and Job Creation.

In its hearing today it was announced that Representative Lincoln Hough (R-Springfield) will offer that list.

“The resolution would essentially be a framework of priority projects across the state to allow the citizens and the voters the opportunity to actually see the economic benefit that will be coming to their community if this moves through the process.”

Some projects that have been discussed are replacement of much of Fulton State Mental Hospital, renovations and repairs at the State Capitol and state parks, numerous improvements or new facilities at colleges and universities and some rural water upgrades.

The authorization for a bond issuance would have to come from voters, and some committee members raised concerns that Kansas City and St. Louis voters won’t support the proposal if it doesn’t include enough projects in those areas. Hough thinks there will be enough for everyone.

“I think we can bridge the gap between any sort of rural and urban issues that one area may think we need a little more or someone else wants a little more, but people need to look at this as a whole … what’s good for the state economic impact overall?”

The Committee will also consider what the price tag on that proposal will be. The resolutions introduced in the House and the Senate both propose a $950 million dollar plan, but lawmakers have speculated that figure could change. The Committee’s Chairman, Representative Chris Kelly (D-Columbia), will offer a proposal to set a target of $1.2 billion dollars, and members will debate whether to raise or lower that amount.

See our earlier stories on a state bonding proposal.

Representative Kevin Engler (R-Farmington) and Representative Dave Schatz (R-Sullivan) will work on an amendment that would add a cost-share component to have colleges and local governments cover part of the cost of their projects, either through cash or in-kind work.

Engler says he knows that idea has gotten the attention of higher education representatives.

“They’re not usually interested in putting up their own money, and in reality they only way we’re going to make this stretch to all the projects that have been proposed is to have some local cost-share match. They have to have some skin in the game. They have to have some incentive locally so that they can get money from the state.”

Schatz says a cost-share would make sure bond proceeds are used responsibly and would make colleges be more careful in selecting projects.

“If there’s a participation mechanism in there I think they will define those projects more on a need basis as opposed to on a wants basis.”

Amendments will also be considered to make energy efficiency a consideration of a bonding-backed project, and to create a “watchdog group” to oversee the use of the bond money.

Administrators’ pitch: $211 million from bonds to improve Fulton State Mental Hospital

February 8, 2013 By Mike Lear

Legislators in the state House and Senate and Governor Jay Nixon have all mentioned Fulton State Mental Hospital in listing priorities for proceeds from the proposed issuance of bonds. Now its administrators have explained the Department of Mental Health’s plan for the Hospital to a House budget subcommittee.

The Department of Mental Health proposal calls for the replacement of the Biggs Maximum Security Forensic Center.

The House Appropriations Committee on Health, Mental Health and Social Services toured the Hospital on Thursday. During the tour its members were told the $211 million dollar plan would replace some of the buildings with more modern facilities, keep the state from having to build a new sexual offender treatment facility at Farmington and save the state between $78 million and $85 million in the next decade and $3.2 million annually.

Behavioral Health Division Director Mark Stringer says it would feature the replacement of the 186 bed, maximum security Biggs Forensic Center.

“The proposal is for a new high-security facility here at Fulton State Hospital to be part of the bond strategy.”

The plan includes demolition of the Biggs facility and other, vacant buildings on the Fulton campus. A new 300-bed maximum-security building would go on the site of the current dietary center, and a new dietary center would be built.

Staff pointed out aging facilities in the dietary center that is using equipment that came off of WWII era ships. Another door like this one can’t be opened because the frame will collapse.

It also calls for moving patients out of the intermediate-security Guhleman Forensic Center into the new building. The Guhleman facility would then be used to provide more space to treat a steadily growing number of patients in the Sex Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Services program.

Administrators say the sex offender program gains 17 to 20 patients a year. Its current building is housing three patients to a room.

Stringer says, “We have to find a place to put those guys, and so if we are not able to vacate [Guhleman Forensic Center] then the state will have to construct what we estimate would be about a $77 million facility.”

The earliest portion of the Biggs facility was built in 1937. Stringer and other administrators and staff walked legislators through the center and pointed out what makes its design outdated and dangerous.

Stringer says an employee working at Biggs for 30 years, statistically, will be injured badly enough to require a trip to an emergency room six times.

“Some of those are life-altering changes from traumatic brain injury, permanent physical injuries … and so they are devastating.”

The Department says workers compensation injuries at the Hospital are more than double that of the Department of Corrections and more than four times state and private industry benchmarks. The cost of Workers Compensation claims at the Hospital have increased fourfold in the last seven years to more than $3.3 million.

Stringer says at least some of the danger is directly a result of the inadequacy of the facility.

Representatives Sue Allen, Tom Flanigan and Jeannie Riddle tour the Fulton State Mental Hospital.

He does not believe improvements at Fulton State Mental Hospital will happen absent a bond issuance to pay for it. When discussion of passing a bond package this year began building, Stringer says he was “ecstatic.”

“One of my dreams in this job would be to see the day when we actually had funding appropriated somehow or generated funding somehow to create a new high-security facility here.”

Even if the Department’s plan becomes part of a bonding proposal, Stringer knows voters would have the final say on that proposal.

He tells Missourians, “Even though we are in Fulton, Missouri, this facility serves people from all over the state … this is where people in … any county in Missouri will come if they simply can not be served anywhere else.” He adds, “We are also keeping this county and all other counties safe because of what we do here, so this is a great investment.”

See our earlier stories on bonding in the 2013 session.

To get the cost of the plan down from $320 million to $211 million, the Department worked to lower the population of Fulton State Mental Hospital between 2009 and 2011. Five short-term treatment wards and two emergency wards in St. Louis and Farmington were closed. Minimum and intermediate security patients were moved to those facilities in St. Louis and Farmington, taking the number of patients in Fulton from 451 patients to 330 today.

The Department says a new facility could save, annually, about $750,000 in energy costs and between $1 million and $1.5 million in staffing costs. It also says the current Hospital’s condition is jeopardizing about $40 million in federal money for Missouri from Medicare and Medicaid.

The Hospital’s administrators hope the $211 million plan will become part of a bonding proposal that would first have to be passed by the legislature before reaching voters. A House Committee took its first testimony this week on the issue. The Senate has yet to begin official work on creating its version.

The bills introduced in both chambers propose issuing $950 million in bonds and says no more than $250 million will be used for construction of state buildings, with $40 million of that required to go to parks and park facilities.