Jun. 13—OTTUMWA — The South Central Behavioral Health Region is officially no more.
The Wapello County Board of Supervisors during Tuesday's meeting approved a 28E agreement to join the Mental Health Agency of Southeast Iowa, dissolving the four-county SCBHR and folding those counties into a new 13-county region in combining with the Southeast Iowa Link (SEIL).
Instead of Appanoose, Davis, Wapello and Mahaska counties having their own health region, eight counties east of the area also will be part of the new region. Monroe County also will be added.
"There's been a lot of changes over the last five or six years. It's been around a lot longer than me, maybe going back 10, 15 or 20 years," supervisor Brian Morgan said. "The state took away control of the money, so we have to abide by the rules of the bigger region."
Indeed, the creation and expansion of the new region is the latest piece in the state's handling of mental health. Two years ago, the state declared counties could not levy for mental health services and assumed control of it.
The levy rate cap for mental health from property taxes was about $47 per $1,000 in valuation, though Wapello County was in the mid-$30 range, Morgan said. The county then had to lower the levy further, into the $22 range to "get rid of money," Morgan said.
"When regionalization happened probably six years ago, it took Wapello County's money, Davis' money, Mahaska's money and more or less put it all into a general pot to use," Morgan said. "At the time, we did have some say over some things because we had say over the money. It was a group of supervisors that decided how to spend that money."
The governance structure of the larger region now takes some of that say out of the various county supervisors' hands. Only six supervisors will have a vote among 13 counties.
"So they've taken control away from, in my opinion, the people that are elected to oversee that money," Morgan said. "We're hoping we still have a say in things and still be vocal, and we're still going to be one of the biggest counties. Population-wise we'll be in with Des Moines County, Henry County, Lee County ...
"It remains to be seen how all that actually shakes out through the region."
The new region aligns with every county in the 8th Judicial District except for Poweshiek County, which declined to join the region. Morgan didn't foresee any contraction of the region, but would not be surprised to see further expansion.