Voters say "NO" to Prop 1E

May 20, 2009 -- California voters opposed Prop. 1E in Tuesday's Special Election, with Proposition 1E receiving the lowest approval level of all of the measures - Just a little over 33%

Proposition 1E would have raided $460 million dollars from voter-approved mental health programs established by Prop. 63, the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) in 2004. This would have had severe, long lasting impacts on successful mental health programs. MHSA programs are helping over 200,000 people including 50,000 children across the state who had no mental health services before Proposition 63 was passed. Initial evaluation results from San Francisco MHSA programs have demonstrated decreases in hospitalizations by 74%, homelessness by 63% and incarceration rates by 42%.

"Prop 1E is a bad precedent. If Prop. 1E succeeds, legislators will come back for more and in the wake of Prop 1E this dedicated revenue source for mental health services will be susceptible to future, larger diversions.", said MHA-SF Executive Director, Belinda Lyons at Monday's No on Prop. 1E Press conference.

This is a small victory for mental health services, "We have had enough broken promises in the area of mental health [and] we're thankful that the voters have kept the promise of Prop. 63 and wish to see it continue", said Rusty Selix, MHA of California executive director and co-author of Prop. 63.

Thank you for your continued support of the Mental Health Association of San Francisco and to mental health services in San Francisco,

Congratulations on our victory!

Belinda Lyons
Executive Director