COLUMBUS — Gov. Ted Strickland would use his line-item veto to wipe out legislation to give Twin Valley Behavioral Mental Healthcare in Dayton six more months to operate, Keith Dailey, Strickland's spokesman said.

Strickland also has "concern" about a second proposal to earmark $6.3 million for a Dayton-area crisis care center to ease anticipated pressure when Twin Valley closes, Dailey said on Thursday, May 22.

Strickland's veto threat came just hours after House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, announced that the six-month moratorium on closing the mental hospital on Wayne Avenue and a $6.3 million earmark were being added to the capital improvements budget scheduled for a Thursday night vote.

"That would be unfortunate," Husted said of the veto threat. He said the proposals would stay in the capital bill.

He said he was trying to solve a problem that Democrat Strickland, so far, had done nothing to solve.

Closing Twin Valley and a mental hospital in Cambridge by June 30 is part of Strickland's plan to avoid a $733 million budget deficit. The six-month moratorium in the budget bill would apply to the Cambridge hospital and other mental health facilities in the state.

The moratorium would jeopardize Strickland's constitutional duty to have a balanced budget, said Dailey.

Also, the $6.3 million earmark would take a large part of the $8 million in the capital budget to help communities statewide with mental health crisis care centers, said Dailey.

Contact this reporter at (614) 224-1608 or whershey@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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