PHOENIX (AP) — Gov. Jan Brewer says the state's severe budget crisis may jeopardize current funding for health services for the seriously mentally ill, let alone allow increases needed to satisfy court orders for improvements.
Brewer's lawyers also say in a recent court filing that she doesn't regard the state's behavioral health system for the Phoenix area to be "in crisis" or needing a wholesale overhaul.
Lawyers for class-action plaintiffs say an October plan offered by Brewer is "belated and sketchy" and that they will ask a judge to rule that Brewer isn't complying with court orders for improvements.
That sets up a potential showdown next week during a status conference scheduled in Maricopa County Superior Court on what happens next in the decades-old case.
