MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Legislation to put a $.98 per-month surcharge on phone lines to fund mental health crisis care was delayed in a House committee on Wednesday but cleared a Senate committee.
House Bill 389 by Rep. Rex Reynolds, R-Huntsville, and the newer, amended Senate Bill 328 by Sen. Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, both would add the nearly $1 per month fee to cell phones and landlines in order to fund in Alabama a 988 phone number for people in crisis to call and receive immediate help from mental health professionals.
The bipartisan 2020 National Suicide Hotline Designation Act signed into law by President Donald Trump made 988 the new three-digit phone number for mental health emergencies effective July 2022. It authorizes states to assess a fee for providing 988 and crisis services.
The bills have been in negotiations for weeks. Reynolds thanked Alabama Department of Mental Health staff members and others Wednesday for the work they’ve done recently to get more support for it.
“We will continue to work on this bill and again, thank you for your work,” Reynolds said before carrying the bill over, meaning a vote was delayed until a future meeting.
“I will continue meeting with our Mental Health agency to see how it advances,” Reynolds told Alabama Daily News.
Later Wednesday, Gudger said the bill would get 24/7 mental health care in every county. The Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development Committee, led by Gudger, approved the bill that now goes to the full Senate.
Proponents of the bill said 988 can do for mental health emergencies what 911 does for public safety emergencies. Alabamians pay $1.86 per month on their phone bills for 911 services. Now, too many people in mental health crises end up in jails or hospital emergency rooms where they don’t get the appropriate care and at a cost to taxpayers, Gudger said.
Police now often deal with these crises.
On Wednesday, ADMH Commissioner Kimberly Boswell said a statewide crisis network would relieve law enforcement “from the void they have been filling for way too long.”
In an emotional plea for the expanded 988 network, Rep. Frances Holk-Jones, R-Foley, told the Senate committee Wednesday about calling 911 more than 20 years ago when her husband called her at 5:30 a.m. to say goodbye. She said she mustered the composure to call 911 and tell a dispatcher where she thought her husband was and what he was doing. She was put on hold only to have to tell the same information to another dispatcher. Her husband died by suicide.
“Yes, 988 costs money, it’s a fee, it’s a tax … but it’s the best way to have a solid cash flow into Alabama mental health assistance,” Holk-Jones said.
Watch Holk-Jones testimony here:
In public hearings Wednesday and last week, representatives of the telecommunications industry said they understand the importance of the 988 framework, but questioned the amount of the surcharge, saying it would be the most expensive 988 tax in the nation.
They suggested the funding come from the state’s General Fund.
Unlike Reynolds’ original bill, Gudger’s newer version allows phone providers to keep 1% of the surcharge they collect.
According to the Alabama Department of Mental Health, the 98-cent surcharge was suggested by the state’s 988 Commission to meet funding needs to build and sustain 988 call centers, expand mobile crisis teams statewide and add additional crisis centers in cities of 50,000 or more. The state currently has four crisis centers and two more are expected to open later this year.
The surcharge would generate about $69 million per year for a new Alabama 988 Crisis Care Fund, according to fiscal notes. That amount equals what is annually needed to fund crisis services statewide, ADMH said.
“(These bills are) an opportunity to ensure sustainable funding for 988 and the expansion of crisis services, which we know are saving lives,” Boswell told Alabama Daily News. “In just nine months over 34,000 Alabamians called 988 in crisis. In just one year, 2100 individuals walked into three of the Crisis Centers in our state, and 412 were suicidal. Their lives were saved.
But right now there are 48 counties in our state with no access to crisis services. We hope to see the AL 988 Act continue through to passage, to ensure crisis services and mental health access for all Alabamians.”