Iowa's Governor Terry Branstad seeks to close two mental institutes

From a much longer report at the Des Moines Register

Gov. Terry Branstad has proposed closing two of the state's four institutes for people with mental illnesses.

The proposal startled legislators of both parties, although the idea of closing at least one of the institutes has been debated off and on for decades, as their populations dwindled and costs soared.

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Branstad suggested during a budget hearing last month that he wanted to consider consolidating some of the services at the institutions. "The facilities are obsolete, and it's extremely expensive" to use them the way the state now does, he said then. However, he said he had no immediate plans to do so.

According to his new budget, however, Branstad wants to zero out spending for the Mount Pleasant and Clarinda institutions. According to the budget, the state is spending nearly $7 million on the Mount Pleasant facility this budget year and $8.7 million on the Clarinda facility.

Local legislators were surprised by the Governor's budget proposals, and are in a panic over the proposed closings