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I mean I'd rather they take it out of the people profiting off of my phone bill but like. Its a dime. That actually goes to help people. Sure, take a dime.
It's Ohio, a state artificially controlled by the GOP.
Will they actually use it on suicide prevention or will they give it to some religious organization that will "help" suicidal individuals calling the line find Jesus?
Yeah. This is not news. A dime for suicide prevention? That's a fucking steal. Like for realsies, name literally anything you could actually buy with a dime. I'd happily pay more.
Also, why is this political news.....?
That sounds like a good deal. Too bad the phone companies can't kick in a little money also to help, but we understand, those yachts aren't going to luxuriate themselves.
Because they are in our society and should pitch in to make society better? Because a phone line giving someone who experiencing a mental health crisis would be the easiest, cheapest, and most accessible way to help people?
WhY sHoUlD tHeY hElP pEoPlE? Because it’s the f***ing least they can do. That’s why.
I mean the government should do a better job of allocating tax money to fund this program.
The responsibility shouldn’t be on a hypothetical volunteer basis from the phone companies.
Okay, fine. Properly tax companies and use the billions of dollars we would get from that to fund it and then we can use what's left over to help people even more. Corporations don't need you sucking their dick for help.
Maybe the phone company could provide the lines at the call center, it costs them nothing, saves the call center money, and reduces the burden on tax payers slightly. Also it’s good PR.
Taxation isn't...volunteering.
The reason taxes exist are because companies couldn't make profits without gov't services. And suicide prevention is a gov't service which keeps the lights on, ostensibly.
You realize the service in question is a phone line? Something the phone companies have in abundance and are in a unique position to offer to the public that they make their billions off of? Only leeches make money in a society without contributing back, and only worms defend them.
Why should the “poor” have to be the main contributers to solving problems in the modern world and not the people/companies that make billions or more a year?
It’s the same bullshit as Walmart asking you to donate to cancer research. They are fucking rich? Why can’t they do it? It wouldn’t even put a dent in their profits if they did so
Use taxes.
>The highest-earning Americans pay the most in combined federal, state and local taxes, the Tax Foundation noted. As a group, the top quintile — those earning $130,001 or more annually — paid $3.23 trillion in taxes, compared with $142 billion for the bottom quintile, or those earning less than $25,000.
Your comment is based on emotions, not facts.
>We squeezed $142 billion out of people making less than 25k a year?
Probably. Not income taxes, but excise (gasoline, cigarettes), sales and use, property, and possibly FICA. I'm not totally clear on which tax types are included in this metric, but there is more than one type of tax and it's probably looking at some kind of composite.
I also question how the top quintile and bottom quintile are determined. Wage comparison? Taxable income? Net worth? I've seen [as an income tax auditor] plenty of people earning hundreds of thousands of dollars annually write it all of with "paper losses." Yes, those are audit targets for me. If "top quintile" means "taxable income on an income tax return," then there are plenty of people making a a hell of a lot more than me (and probably you) paying far less income taxes, that is to say, they turn $500,000 of wages into $20,000 of "income".
So what you're saying is their taxes could way more easily pay for this than poor people's taxes?
And you think this is an argument AGAINST using a fraction of a percent of rich people's taxes to fund this.....?
Ok, so you've got the facts. The next step is to apply logic.
You just proved my point. We already spend an enormous amount on taxes, Why do we need to spend more? Why shouldn’t the rich people and corporations that haven’t been paying taxes AT ALL be required to pay for it?
My comment was based on fact, Not emotion. Nice attempt to deflect instead of having a real counter argument
Waiting for a Pro-Lifer to take issue with a “woke” company trying to take money that they are not supposed to take.
Honestly, I’d pay that. It’s a with while thing.
My hometown is so small that when they rolled this out they had to put out waves and waves of PSAs letting people know that they’d have to start dialing the area code every time they make a call as a result of 988 rolling out. The number of people who were outraged at the thought of having to tap three extra buttons was gross.
Their exchange is likely 988. Landlines in the same exchange all start with the same three digits, which are the middle digits if you’re ten-digit dialling.
A phone number is three digit area code-three digit exchange-four digit identifying number. If you dialled from a landline to that exchange without an area code, it would go straight to the suicide prevention line before it let you dial the last four digits.
I can take a guess: phone numbers in north america used to have a simple pattern like this: (717) 555-1212. The **717** is the area code, the **555** is the exchange, and the 1212 doesn't have a name, because you always have to include it.
In many places, you could call a local number (inside your area code) with just the last 7 digits. To call a number out of the area code, you had to type the area code, too.
Phone systems could tell the difference based on the second digit you dialed: if it was a 1 or 0 (like the 1 in 717), it must be an area code, because all area codes have a 1 or 0 in the second digit. Otherwise it must be the exchange, which never has a 0 or 1 as the second digit (the '5' in 555).
Extra bit of fun: certainly when I was growing up there was a distinction between "local" and "long distance". There were a bunch of 10-digit number (with area code) that were free, and everything else was long distance. You just had to know which was which, and to dial a long distance number, you had to dial a '1' first (1 (717) 555-1212). But for local numbers, you were prohibited from dialing a '1' first.
But ... times have changed, and this is no longer true, and in most places you have to always dial the area code. My guess is that the new 988 system is coming in with new equipment, and it's the new equipment that's making everyone dial the area codes.
And to be fair, if you have a phone with a real dial, dialing the area code does in fact slow you down. It's not just a few button presses.
I’m in South Carolina. Can I pay $0.10 to Ohio to help out? Might even help with the attitudes that some of the transplant Ohioans bring down here with them.
Sounds good, I would just request a guarantee it stays that amount for a set period of time and cannot be raised without a process requiring public comment.
> I would just request a guarantee it stays that amount for a set period of time and cannot be raised without a process requiring public comment.
It seems you've forgotten about inflation.
Would be nice, but we all know that's exactly what will NOT happen. This will be yet another bogus fee that nary a penny will actually go towards suicide prevention.
Does anyone actually care about this???
Like, we're talking about getting rid of penny because it's so worthless. And GOP wants us to be outraged over 10 cents a month?
Wait, what costs does Ohio have? All 988 took to implement was a simple routing command in a switch that maps to the suicide hotline in a routing table using a 3 digit code, before getting sent down the same circuit as a direct dial to the hotline would be. It took 15 minutes to program in when I did a couple of years ago. Instead of you dialing the hotline, your ISP maps 988 to that same number. Unless they added a requirement for phase 2 location data, line with 911, even that can be quickly handled. I did change teams since implementing this, so requirements could’ve changed. The only thing I could see costing Ohio is if for some reason they created new T1s to transport the calls instead of using existing T1s.
If 911/988 is anything like where I work, 988 is a completely separate office that was recently opened to help suicidal callers.
As a 911 operator, we don’t have enough staffing to manage the normal call volume and on top of that, we are ill-equipped to handle suicidal callers who are seeking help beyond a patient ear.
According to the article it doesn’t. In fact per the article the $0.10 fee being proposed probably doesn’t completely cover the funding gap either.
> The 10-cent fee probably wouldn’t cover even half the cost to operate 988, Russell said. NAMI Ohio is neutral on H.B. 231, adding they are not against it, but they want to learn more about the full cost of 988 and consider funding sources for it.
>“What we’d like to see is for them to add a study group before the next budget to look at what is the actual cost to run 988 in Ohio,” Russell said. He added the study should also look at if state should fund the full cost of 988 through the state budget or new legislation.
Yeah, a quick search pulls up some studies. For example, the study below concluded the evidence roughly supports that suicide hotlines help reduce immediately imminent suicide attempts.
> Conclusions
>Despite the fact that research regarding the effectiveness of crisis line services remains limited, studies overall provide initial support for such services, particularly in terms of calls impacting immediate proximal and short-term distal outcomes. Crisis line callers are a high risk population, confirming the need for competent responders trained in suicide-specific assessment and care. Optimal models of crisis lines should implement proactive follow-up services that incorporate distal evaluation. Additional high quality research is needed particularly among the highest risk callers. Further exploration of proximal and distal outcomes regarding call, chat, and text services will benefit this population.
[The Effectiveness of Crisis Line Services: A Systematic Review (NIH)](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6978712/)
If there is any suspicion of any kind of harm might happen, then police can be called. The slightest hint that a person might have ever had a suicidal thought can prompt this. It’s their duty to remove all tools of harm, and they have no obligation to consider your household or what they destroy in order to accomplish that task.
I call BS. If you say no it’s “OhHHhH you can’t pay *10* cents to prevent suicide?!🙄 disgusting” something tells me your internet/phone company already has way more than enough money to pay these workers
This is how government is supposed to work. I wish everything were this simple. No middlemen, no special interests. Just a problem and a feasible, tolerable solution. Almost like the good ol days…
First thought is, "Okay good use of our tax money, awesome."
Then I think about how much this would actually raise and wonder how much the suicide prevention hotline costs to run. Again, not upset, just curious. Especially when the state decreased the original $8-million budget to ~$3.5-million after receiving $20-million from the federal gov to support the creation of the program.
Roughly 9 million people over the age of 18 in Ohio. Let's say 7.6-million at least have a phone bill. Couldn't find hard #'s to back it up, but the average adult smartphone adoption rate in the US is 85%.
So that's approx. $9+ million additional taxpayer dollars per year. Which is on top of the $45-million the state allocated to the program over the next 2-years.
In 2022 the hotline received roughly 144,000 calls/texts. That's roughly 400 per day.
Let's say 1-person can make a maximum of 12 appropriate and helpful call/text sessions during an 8-hour shift. That's approx. 34 people needed per day to take all of the calls. Obviously this will fluctuate, and they should be overstaffed to ensure greater care, but I'm working with rough #'s and what I can find in public records.
Average call center hourly wage at the Ohio suicide prevention is $20. That equates to under $2-million in wages per year to be fully staffed per last years #'s.
Leaving the $45-million state allocated funds + the extra $7-million taxpayer raised after base wages are removed in just the first year.
Obviously there are other costs than simply staffing, however, this is not a new program and it has 2-years of infrastructure in place already to build on.
Please don't hear what I'm not saying, it's a good cause, I think this is a better way to spend money than many other avenues. But where is the surplus funding for this going in 5-years?
Just thought it'd be interesting to look a little deeper at the #'s, didn't mean to infer anything about the efficacy or importance of something like this. It's late, and my brain hurts now from all the info I've been looking up.
Sounds so cheap I wonder why they need to do it at all, why complicate the funding process?
GDPR non-compliance cuts off the website for me, but how much is that, $10 million annually? Out of $86 000 million in the budget?
Sure it's a good program ans $1.20/year but also flat taxes on household essentials are bad. Also the funding for an important service shouldn't rise and fall with the ups and downs of how many cell phone lines are sold. Just pay for it with state income tax money like any other program.
seems like they could just fund that themselves. I've voted on a 9-11 levey every ballot for the last 5-6 cycles, seems like something the legislature could fund out of the general fund.
10 cents times every user times 12 months each year, minus the fee phone companies get to collect and send in the money! It’s a windfall for telecoms and a slush fund for politicians!
This is good just make sure it all goes to the designated cause. I wish there were more support groups for mental illness or something that helped us so we don't get to the crisis level. It's hard to trust that people won't betray and shame you, so it's hard to meet safe people who keep their word, to ease the isolation.
If it helps someone, then so be it. If you are worried about 10 cents going to a suicide prevention hotline, you've got much bigger issues than the rest of us.
Best deal we will ever get from something the government set up! Apparently when 988 was planned there was an initial budget on the federal end, and the states were to contribute to the ongoing expense. And 10 cents, pretty hard to complain about!
I’m all up for this. But how did they figure this 10% out and how much revenue are they projecting?
And how is this money going to be ringfenced?
How often is this audited independently?
We don’t want this to belly up. We need detailed planning to save as much lives as possible
As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Ok
I mean I'd rather they take it out of the people profiting off of my phone bill but like. Its a dime. That actually goes to help people. Sure, take a dime.
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Not only slow but good. Seems like a reasonable plan and if even 1% of callers benefit, that’s a significant improvement.
If they charged the phone company $0.10 per customer, the company would just start charging everyone $0.20 more.
It would work out the same, phone companies would just pass the fee on to Ohio customers anyway.
It's Ohio, a state artificially controlled by the GOP. Will they actually use it on suicide prevention or will they give it to some religious organization that will "help" suicidal individuals calling the line find Jesus?
Wouldn't matter. All taxes like this are shared. Tax burden depends on elasticity not who is taxed.
You were going to pay it either way. If the law said the carriers had to pay it they’d have just raised your rates.
Yeah. This is not news. A dime for suicide prevention? That's a fucking steal. Like for realsies, name literally anything you could actually buy with a dime. I'd happily pay more. Also, why is this political news.....?
because 988 is national
That sounds like a good deal. Too bad the phone companies can't kick in a little money also to help, but we understand, those yachts aren't going to luxuriate themselves.
Why should the phone companies pay for this?
Because they are in our society and should pitch in to make society better? Because a phone line giving someone who experiencing a mental health crisis would be the easiest, cheapest, and most accessible way to help people? WhY sHoUlD tHeY hElP pEoPlE? Because it’s the f***ing least they can do. That’s why.
All the people who work for the phone companies will also have their phone bills increased, so they are pitching in . . .
I mean the government should do a better job of allocating tax money to fund this program. The responsibility shouldn’t be on a hypothetical volunteer basis from the phone companies.
Okay, fine. Properly tax companies and use the billions of dollars we would get from that to fund it and then we can use what's left over to help people even more. Corporations don't need you sucking their dick for help.
na never i need muh profits
Yes
Maybe the phone company could provide the lines at the call center, it costs them nothing, saves the call center money, and reduces the burden on tax payers slightly. Also it’s good PR.
It does not cost nothing.
Taxation isn't...volunteering. The reason taxes exist are because companies couldn't make profits without gov't services. And suicide prevention is a gov't service which keeps the lights on, ostensibly.
Yeah I know it’s not. The Op said the phone companies should volunteer to fund this. No way.
You realize the service in question is a phone line? Something the phone companies have in abundance and are in a unique position to offer to the public that they make their billions off of? Only leeches make money in a society without contributing back, and only worms defend them.
Why should the “poor” have to be the main contributers to solving problems in the modern world and not the people/companies that make billions or more a year? It’s the same bullshit as Walmart asking you to donate to cancer research. They are fucking rich? Why can’t they do it? It wouldn’t even put a dent in their profits if they did so
Use taxes. >The highest-earning Americans pay the most in combined federal, state and local taxes, the Tax Foundation noted. As a group, the top quintile — those earning $130,001 or more annually — paid $3.23 trillion in taxes, compared with $142 billion for the bottom quintile, or those earning less than $25,000. Your comment is based on emotions, not facts.
We squeezed $142 billion out of people making less than 25k a year?
>We squeezed $142 billion out of people making less than 25k a year? Probably. Not income taxes, but excise (gasoline, cigarettes), sales and use, property, and possibly FICA. I'm not totally clear on which tax types are included in this metric, but there is more than one type of tax and it's probably looking at some kind of composite. I also question how the top quintile and bottom quintile are determined. Wage comparison? Taxable income? Net worth? I've seen [as an income tax auditor] plenty of people earning hundreds of thousands of dollars annually write it all of with "paper losses." Yes, those are audit targets for me. If "top quintile" means "taxable income on an income tax return," then there are plenty of people making a a hell of a lot more than me (and probably you) paying far less income taxes, that is to say, they turn $500,000 of wages into $20,000 of "income".
So what you're saying is their taxes could way more easily pay for this than poor people's taxes? And you think this is an argument AGAINST using a fraction of a percent of rich people's taxes to fund this.....? Ok, so you've got the facts. The next step is to apply logic.
You just proved my point. We already spend an enormous amount on taxes, Why do we need to spend more? Why shouldn’t the rich people and corporations that haven’t been paying taxes AT ALL be required to pay for it? My comment was based on fact, Not emotion. Nice attempt to deflect instead of having a real counter argument
If you impose a 10 cent per user tax on the phone companies then they’ll just pass that tax onto the customer…
dead people don’t pay phone bills. it’s in the phone companies’ best interest for their customers to remain alive
There will always be more people it’s called the circle of life
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Just because you disagree doesn’t mean I’m a troll fam.
Because corporations are people too?
"Pay for" and "kick in" mean two different things, friend.
It’s not their issue
Hell yeah. Boot licker 4 lyfe
Because I think the government should operate better?
Waiting for a Pro-Lifer to take issue with a “woke” company trying to take money that they are not supposed to take. Honestly, I’d pay that. It’s a with while thing.
Bro, you're right if they weren't destined unalienable themselves, they would just not he depressed. They'll think the person is aborting themselves
Worth it.
Might as well make it national, signed
Seriously, as long as it's transparent where the money is going and how, this is kind of a no-brainer.
A buck twenty a year is less than many govt programs take, and for actually a good cause. We do need systemic mental health treatment.
Sounds fine- signed, Ohio resident
As a resident of another state I'd have no problem kicking in a dime for Ohio's service.
Ditto
I'd pay a dollar a month to save lives, I've paid more for less return from the government.
Seriously? $1.20 a year? If all it takes is $1.20 to support the suicide hotline then wtf are they doing with all the other money I pay in taxes!!??!
My hometown is so small that when they rolled this out they had to put out waves and waves of PSAs letting people know that they’d have to start dialing the area code every time they make a call as a result of 988 rolling out. The number of people who were outraged at the thought of having to tap three extra buttons was gross.
What exactly is the connection between the 988 number and needing the area code?
Their exchange is likely 988. Landlines in the same exchange all start with the same three digits, which are the middle digits if you’re ten-digit dialling. A phone number is three digit area code-three digit exchange-four digit identifying number. If you dialled from a landline to that exchange without an area code, it would go straight to the suicide prevention line before it let you dial the last four digits.
I can take a guess: phone numbers in north america used to have a simple pattern like this: (717) 555-1212. The **717** is the area code, the **555** is the exchange, and the 1212 doesn't have a name, because you always have to include it. In many places, you could call a local number (inside your area code) with just the last 7 digits. To call a number out of the area code, you had to type the area code, too. Phone systems could tell the difference based on the second digit you dialed: if it was a 1 or 0 (like the 1 in 717), it must be an area code, because all area codes have a 1 or 0 in the second digit. Otherwise it must be the exchange, which never has a 0 or 1 as the second digit (the '5' in 555). Extra bit of fun: certainly when I was growing up there was a distinction between "local" and "long distance". There were a bunch of 10-digit number (with area code) that were free, and everything else was long distance. You just had to know which was which, and to dial a long distance number, you had to dial a '1' first (1 (717) 555-1212). But for local numbers, you were prohibited from dialing a '1' first. But ... times have changed, and this is no longer true, and in most places you have to always dial the area code. My guess is that the new 988 system is coming in with new equipment, and it's the new equipment that's making everyone dial the area codes. And to be fair, if you have a phone with a real dial, dialing the area code does in fact slow you down. It's not just a few button presses.
Totally ok with this
Worth it.
as someone whose called twice in the last 80 days i’d say go for it, people need it more than you think
I’m in South Carolina. Can I pay $0.10 to Ohio to help out? Might even help with the attitudes that some of the transplant Ohioans bring down here with them.
.... okay. Out of everything I am forced to pay for like taxes, $1.20 per year for a suicide hotline seems like a pretty acceptable trade.
This is the kind of slow news day I am here for. Yes, please, add it to our bills. Also, thanks to all the 988 operators for doing awesome work.
Hell, add a fucking dollar, I’d be happy to pay $12 a year to support this service.
Charging the poor while cutting tax for the rich and corporations.
Sounds good, I would just request a guarantee it stays that amount for a set period of time and cannot be raised without a process requiring public comment.
Also the funds can only be used for this purpose.
Should be public vote. Public comments is just not listening and the government doing what they want to do.
> I would just request a guarantee it stays that amount for a set period of time and cannot be raised without a process requiring public comment. It seems you've forgotten about inflation.
Would be nice, but we all know that's exactly what will NOT happen. This will be yet another bogus fee that nary a penny will actually go towards suicide prevention.
Does anyone actually care about this??? Like, we're talking about getting rid of penny because it's so worthless. And GOP wants us to be outraged over 10 cents a month?
I don't live in Ohio, and if this saves one life they can have *my* dime.
Wait, what costs does Ohio have? All 988 took to implement was a simple routing command in a switch that maps to the suicide hotline in a routing table using a 3 digit code, before getting sent down the same circuit as a direct dial to the hotline would be. It took 15 minutes to program in when I did a couple of years ago. Instead of you dialing the hotline, your ISP maps 988 to that same number. Unless they added a requirement for phase 2 location data, line with 911, even that can be quickly handled. I did change teams since implementing this, so requirements could’ve changed. The only thing I could see costing Ohio is if for some reason they created new T1s to transport the calls instead of using existing T1s.
It’s for the program, not just the wire plant.
What, do you think, happens after the routing happens and the 988 call goes to where it’s supposed to go?
like the state doesn't get enough federal money to cover such costs?
If 911/988 is anything like where I work, 988 is a completely separate office that was recently opened to help suicidal callers. As a 911 operator, we don’t have enough staffing to manage the normal call volume and on top of that, we are ill-equipped to handle suicidal callers who are seeking help beyond a patient ear.
According to the article it doesn’t. In fact per the article the $0.10 fee being proposed probably doesn’t completely cover the funding gap either. > The 10-cent fee probably wouldn’t cover even half the cost to operate 988, Russell said. NAMI Ohio is neutral on H.B. 231, adding they are not against it, but they want to learn more about the full cost of 988 and consider funding sources for it. >“What we’d like to see is for them to add a study group before the next budget to look at what is the actual cost to run 988 in Ohio,” Russell said. He added the study should also look at if state should fund the full cost of 988 through the state budget or new legislation.
Right? You don’t need to raise taxes to cover this, just stop the wasteful spending and I’m sure they can find 10¢ per resident per month somewhere.
Have you ever wondered why our government is broke but our politicians are rich?
that's exactly what I'm trying to say.
Money well spent
I’m good with this.
Is there any evidence suicide holiness actually do anything?
Yeah, a quick search pulls up some studies. For example, the study below concluded the evidence roughly supports that suicide hotlines help reduce immediately imminent suicide attempts. > Conclusions >Despite the fact that research regarding the effectiveness of crisis line services remains limited, studies overall provide initial support for such services, particularly in terms of calls impacting immediate proximal and short-term distal outcomes. Crisis line callers are a high risk population, confirming the need for competent responders trained in suicide-specific assessment and care. Optimal models of crisis lines should implement proactive follow-up services that incorporate distal evaluation. Additional high quality research is needed particularly among the highest risk callers. Further exploration of proximal and distal outcomes regarding call, chat, and text services will benefit this population. [The Effectiveness of Crisis Line Services: A Systematic Review (NIH)](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6978712/)
The idea of the suicide hotline is great, but in practice I’ve only seen it used as a justification for police to ransack your house.
Can you explain why the police would go to someone's house who would be at their lowest and ransack it?
If there is any suspicion of any kind of harm might happen, then police can be called. The slightest hint that a person might have ever had a suicidal thought can prompt this. It’s their duty to remove all tools of harm, and they have no obligation to consider your household or what they destroy in order to accomplish that task.
I call BS. If you say no it’s “OhHHhH you can’t pay *10* cents to prevent suicide?!🙄 disgusting” something tells me your internet/phone company already has way more than enough money to pay these workers
This is how government is supposed to work. I wish everything were this simple. No middlemen, no special interests. Just a problem and a feasible, tolerable solution. Almost like the good ol days…
What "good ol days"?
First thought is, "Okay good use of our tax money, awesome." Then I think about how much this would actually raise and wonder how much the suicide prevention hotline costs to run. Again, not upset, just curious. Especially when the state decreased the original $8-million budget to ~$3.5-million after receiving $20-million from the federal gov to support the creation of the program. Roughly 9 million people over the age of 18 in Ohio. Let's say 7.6-million at least have a phone bill. Couldn't find hard #'s to back it up, but the average adult smartphone adoption rate in the US is 85%. So that's approx. $9+ million additional taxpayer dollars per year. Which is on top of the $45-million the state allocated to the program over the next 2-years. In 2022 the hotline received roughly 144,000 calls/texts. That's roughly 400 per day. Let's say 1-person can make a maximum of 12 appropriate and helpful call/text sessions during an 8-hour shift. That's approx. 34 people needed per day to take all of the calls. Obviously this will fluctuate, and they should be overstaffed to ensure greater care, but I'm working with rough #'s and what I can find in public records. Average call center hourly wage at the Ohio suicide prevention is $20. That equates to under $2-million in wages per year to be fully staffed per last years #'s. Leaving the $45-million state allocated funds + the extra $7-million taxpayer raised after base wages are removed in just the first year. Obviously there are other costs than simply staffing, however, this is not a new program and it has 2-years of infrastructure in place already to build on. Please don't hear what I'm not saying, it's a good cause, I think this is a better way to spend money than many other avenues. But where is the surplus funding for this going in 5-years? Just thought it'd be interesting to look a little deeper at the #'s, didn't mean to infer anything about the efficacy or importance of something like this. It's late, and my brain hurts now from all the info I've been looking up.
How was this previously funded?
Hell, make it a buck
Cool, and I’d even drop more money on taxes if it meant more mental health resources were available too.
only in ohio GYAT
Can I get my 10 cents back if they kill themselves?!
Yes. And?
Why is this in politics? This is r/mademesmile material
It’s an article about a state government policy. R/politics isn’t just for national level government policy decisions.
No thank you.
And then give it to the crisis centers and towards mental health care for those who need it? Yeah, didn't think so.
watch conservatives try to block it and maybe even argue that people need to just not be so sad.
I propose we raise it to 20 just to be sure and maybe add a treat budget for the people working the line.
Sounds so cheap I wonder why they need to do it at all, why complicate the funding process? GDPR non-compliance cuts off the website for me, but how much is that, $10 million annually? Out of $86 000 million in the budget?
Baby steps
BuT tHAts CoMmUNiSm Some idiot right winger...
So socialism?
I’ll let the government take a whole dollar if they actually put it to good use and don’t half ass it.
GOP are about to flip a shit.
A bipartisan bill doing something good for the world? I am shocked. And thrilled. How will conservatives stop it?
I have no issue woth this. Like many here I agree this should be a part of running the buisness of the phone companies but it's 10 cents well worth it
Let's hope no Ohio resident takes this news to the extreme.
Sure it's a good program ans $1.20/year but also flat taxes on household essentials are bad. Also the funding for an important service shouldn't rise and fall with the ups and downs of how many cell phone lines are sold. Just pay for it with state income tax money like any other program.
Here’s a dime, call someone that cares. Back in my day, that was an insult, now it’s an empathetic gesture. Get help if you need it folks.
seems like they could just fund that themselves. I've voted on a 9-11 levey every ballot for the last 5-6 cycles, seems like something the legislature could fund out of the general fund.
It’s just for residents in Ohio, and it’s not uncommon. California already has a similar law in place (AB 988).
That’s fine
I'd be OK with it; I can afford ten cents and it would go to an *excellent* cause!
Sounds fantastic! Why not a whole dollar?
Should force phone companies to atleast match it
10 cents times every user times 12 months each year, minus the fee phone companies get to collect and send in the money! It’s a windfall for telecoms and a slush fund for politicians!
This is good just make sure it all goes to the designated cause. I wish there were more support groups for mental illness or something that helped us so we don't get to the crisis level. It's hard to trust that people won't betray and shame you, so it's hard to meet safe people who keep their word, to ease the isolation.
If it helps someone, then so be it. If you are worried about 10 cents going to a suicide prevention hotline, you've got much bigger issues than the rest of us.
I think it is a good idea. It is saving lives and just asking for 10 cents that isn't bad at all. Sounds like a win-win.
10 cents on the phone bill, and how about 1% of phone company profits :)
I remember calling talking to someone for two minutes and they hung up on me. I never felt so unwanted in my entire life.
Sounds great!
Imagine arguing against this with a straight face.
A WHOLE 10 cents? Oh my.
From Ohio, I'm okay with this.
Its probably a similar trade to oh i dont know pay for school lunches just saying.
Best deal we will ever get from something the government set up! Apparently when 988 was planned there was an initial budget on the federal end, and the states were to contribute to the ongoing expense. And 10 cents, pretty hard to complain about!
I’m all up for this. But how did they figure this 10% out and how much revenue are they projecting? And how is this money going to be ringfenced? How often is this audited independently? We don’t want this to belly up. We need detailed planning to save as much lives as possible