Governor Terry Branstad says his administration won’t be violating state law if they continue to run “significant” prison operations and a military-style academy on the Mental Health Institute campuses in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda.
But state Senator Rich Taylor of Mount Pleasant argues Iowa law requires the state to provide in-patient care for mentally ill patients at both sites. Branstad says the attorney general’s office has assured him what he’s proposing is legal.
Key legislators…including Taylor and Republican Dave Heaton of Mt. Pleasant… says they were “disturbed” because they didn’t learn of Branstad’s plan to close the two mental health care facilities in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda until they were shown the details of Branstad’s proposed bugdet. Branstad rejects the complaint that he hid his intentions until the very last minute.
The federal government is picking up a smaller portion of Medicaid spending in Iowa, because of a formula that sends states with better economies less than other states where the economy is dragging. Branstad says that means the budget for the Department of Human Services was tough to draft — and the Mental Health Institutes are managed by the department.
