Mental health bill for vets’ families advances

DENVER - A proposed pilot program to offer mental health services to families of recently discharged Colorado Springs combat veterans cleared its biggest hurdle Thursday.

The Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously approved SB146, which would create a three-year program in the Pikes Peak region before expanding it to the rest of the state if it is successful. The committee also approved, along party-line votes, measures to allow children on reduced-price school breakfasts to get them for free and to extend protection from employment discrimination to people based on their sexual orientation.

Freshman Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, proposed the mental health services program after a voter told him about the need to help veterans returning from combat.

The bill doesn’t address the actual veterans, who are covered by Veterans Administration services even after they leave the military, but seeks to help the spouses and children who might be dealing with men and women reluctant to go to counseling. About 100 families a year would be allowed to receive these services from Springs-area providers after paying $20.

“If the federal government was really stepping up to the plate and supporting our troops, we wouldn’t need this. But they’re not,” Morse said after the hearing. “The federal government, in my view — and this is just an opinion — is not as focused on the families of veterans as they ought to be.”

If the Senate and House approve the program, Morse expects it would begin around July 1. It would be up to the service providers, specifically Pikes Peak Mental Health, to publicize it.

The program would cost $300,000 each year, with money coming from the tobacco settlement fund. Funding is secured for fiscal 2007-08 but is less solid for the next two years.

Though the bill passed out of the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee on a party-line vote, it ran into no opposition Thursday.

Committee members were more divided on Senate Bill 25, which bars employers from hiring, firing, promoting or demoting on the basis of sexual orientation. Discrimination protections based on disability, race, creed, color, gender, age, national origin and ancestry already exist.

No one spoke for or against the measure by Sen. Jen Veiga, D-Denver, but a floor fight is expected in the Senate. Veiga has sponsored the bill for the past eight years, only to see it shot down by GOP legislators or former Gov. Bill Owens.

The committee also approved by a 6-4 margin a bill that would give free school breakfasts to all students who now pay 30 cents a day for them. These students are children of the working poor, paying more than those below the federal poverty level but less than other students, and some of them cannot afford even that amount, said sponsoring Sen. Paula Sandoval, D-Denver.

SB59 would take $700,000 out of the State Education Fund. It also heads to the Senate floor.

CONTACT THE WRITER: (303)837-0613 or ed.sealover@gazette.com