INDIANAPOLIS — Gov. Mitch Daniels' administration is again seeking to eliminate laws that prevent the state from closing the Evansville State Hospital and the Evansville Psychiatric Children's Center or reducing staffing levels there.
Southwestern Indiana lawmakers blocked an effort by then-Gov. Frank O'Bannon in 2002 to close the children's center by passing a law that freezes the staff size at the center and at the state hospital at 2002 levels.
As a result, no administration can cut the number of workers below those levels without the General Assembly's approval, regardless of whether that staff structure still best suits the hospitals.
The budget proposal the Daniels administration unveiled Thursday would strip away those protections.
The Evansville Psychiatric Children's Center has 28 beds, and 19 of them are being used by patients right now, said Marcus Barlow, a spokesman for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration.
For those patients, the children's center employs 52 workers, 37 of whom are involved in clinical care.
Barlow said the state believes in many cases, institutionalization might be a worse option than home-based care for the children's center's patients. He said the FSSA has not decided to close the center, but likely would make at least some changes to its purpose.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, one of the most powerful figures in the budget-writing process, met Thursday morning with Sen. Vaneta Becker and Rep. Suzanne Crouch, both Evansville Republicans, to discuss that language.
"We recognize and appreciate that this is the governor's proposal. We also recognize and appreciate that that may not be what we end up passing," Crouch said.
"We don't want to deprive the governor's office from creating efficiencies. So to the extent that we can allow the Evansville Psychiatric Children's Center and Evansville State Hospital to have some shared functions that will create efficiencies, I think we're all in agreement to that," she said.