Rep. Salzman praises education, mental health funding for district

CANTONMENT, Fla. (FLV) – Rep. Michelle Salzman, R-Cantonment, spoke with Florida’s Voice about her district’s touted education and mental health budget achievements.

Full interview with Salzman is located here and at the bottom of the story.

To Salzman, the most important funding her district will receive from the recently signed state budget is $13.6 million in financial resources for universities.

“They’ve been on the back burner for quite some time and a lot of their projects have just been going by the waist side,” she said. “In the last couple of years, and then hopefully in the year to come, we’ve tried to make up for that by providing them with the funding they need.”

The lawmaker highlighted that the educational funding is a “big win” for the community “long-term.”

Salzman expressed how one of her most passionate topics is mental health. This is an area that she believes the budget was able to address by providing $16.5 million for her district as well as additional resources across the state.

Some of this mental health funding will contribute to a new receiving facility for those who need significant mental treatment and care.

”If you think somebody needs to be Baker acted or you think they’re on drugs or whatever, you don’t have anywhere to send them except the emergency room, in most communities,” she continued. “A majority of those people just need more medication or they just needed some time to cool down.”

Similar to Salzman, Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, emphasized the importance of this funding going to the panhandle community and the people living within it.

Andrade said that these resources will help “relieve” some of the “pressure and demand” that the system has to deal with.

“We have a mental health crisis in the world,” said Salzman. “Florida has been trying really hard to catch up on that and do what we can. So providing millions and millions of dollars in the panhandle to funding for all kinds of mental health resources is critical.”

Salzman added how she is the vice chair of the healthcare appropriations committee and that getting this type of funding in the budget for communities all across the state was a “huge priority” not just for the the committee, but also for “the speaker, the senate president, and the governor.”