Tomorrow, legislators will voice their support for bipartisan legislation that provides funding to keep the Mount Pleasant Mental Health Institute open. State Senator Rich Taylor is holding an event where he and fellow state legislators, including Representative Dave Heaton, will urge Governor Terry Branstad to sign the Health and Human Services budget bill.
This comes a day before the governor speaks at the Mount Pleasant Noon Rotary’s meeting on Wednesday. Under the legislation approved by the House and Senate, the Mount Pleasant facility would operate as it was July 1st of 2014, when it was providing adult acute psychiatric care and dual diagnosis substance abuse in-patient care.
The governor’s budget, released at the beginning of the session, did not provide funding for the institute, effectively closing it June 30th. According to Heaton, who serves as chair of the House’s Health and Human Services Budget Committee, Branstad’s line item veto power gives him the final say.