TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas — Travis County Judge Andy Brown says, if he had to give a grade to Texas lawmakers through the regular session and first special session, it would be an F.
Brown told us he’s particularly disappointed that lawmakers didn’t raise the minimum age to buy certain firearms and that they failed to legalize fentanyl test strips.
“The thing that’s going to save lives here, frankly, is not property taxes, it’s legalizing fentanyl strips. It’s having more common sense gun regulations,” Judge Brown told us on Inside Texas Politics. “Overall, I think they really missed a lot of big opportunities.”
Brown remains hopeful that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will call a special session for lawmakers to legalize fentanyl test strips.
Overdoses are the No. 1 cause of accidental deaths in Travis County, driven largely by the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
The test strips would allow people to know if a drug is tainted with fentanyl, but they’re currently illegal in Texas.
“I think they had so many opportunities, and I guess still do have some opportunities, to use that surplus for a lot of good in the state,” said the Judge.
Brown also provided an update on the county’s planned mental health diversion center.
The center, which Travis County commissioners approved in March, would provide shelter and services to folks experiencing a mental health episode, instead of them going to jail.
Brown says a similar facility and program in Nashville, TN reduced that city’s recidivism rate by 70%.
He says there are around 2,200 people in the Travis County jail today and, according to jail surveys, more than 40% have a mental health condition.
Brown says a new diversion center would not only help those folks, but also help the county save money in many different areas.
“If we can reduce that jail population by that 40%, or even by 25%, that’s going to help us with the strain that we’re having trying to hire corrections officers in the jail, which is one of the hardest jobs for any local government to hire in Texas right now,” he argued.
While the physical building is still two to three years away from completion, Brown says the county will start a pilot program in a different building by the end of the summer.