JPS mental health; Bedford taxes
JPS mental health
The Star-Telegram Editorial Board began its Sept. 4 editorial (“Committee fights for better mental health care”) by stating, “Texas is taking mental health care seriously.”
Apparently, the Tarrant County Commissioners’ Court hasn’t gotten the message.
Instead, these “fiscal conservatives” continue to kick the can down the road and hire expensive consultants to study the issue of expanding the mental health care capacity at John Peter Smith Hospital. This penny-wise, pound-foolish approach only costs taxpayers more money.
As another Star-Telegram story reported, prisons are filled with people who, if they had access to appropriate mental health care, might have a chance to live productive lives.
It costs taxpayers much more to house a prison inmate than to provide decent mental health and drug and alcohol rehabilitative care in a therapeutic setting.
Tarrant County needs to join others in Texas and start taking the issue of mental health care seriously by expanding JPS’s ability to meet the growing needs of this community.
Compassionate treatment, not punitive incarceration, will save taxpayer money in the long run, a lesson the leaders of Tarrant County have not learned.
William W. Thorburn, Benbrook
Bedford taxes
It is time for the Bedford Rollback Bullies to simply stop it.
Like bullies on a playground, they bluster and threaten dire consequences if things are not done their way. A city is water, sewer, police and fire services, but there is so much more that makes a quality of life for residents to be proud of and enjoy.
All of that takes working capital.
Strange that these same people get livid and accuse City Council members of trying to be like other area cities, yet in this instance these bullies are the ones pointing to area cities lowering their tax rates and telling Bedford to be just like them.
I fully support the council approving the budget they have proposed, which does not lower the tax rate. I ask others to join me in letting our elected officials hear us.
Deborah Chaney, Bedford
This story was originally published September 6, 2016 at 5:18 PM with the headline "JPS mental health; Bedford taxes."