MONTPELIER — Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin is expressing impatience with lawmakers for not sending him legislation to revamp the state’s mental health system fast enough.
And Shumlin is insisting that lawmakers limit the size of a new psychiatric hospital to be built in Berlin to 16 beds, saying if the state builds a larger one, it will lose nearly $10 million a year in federal funding.
The Senate on Wednesday is to take up a bill passed by the House that calls for a 25-bed facility in Berlin.
The Senate is moving to shrink that number to 16, as the governor wants.
It also creates other, smaller mental health facilities around the state.
The system has been in upheaval since the Vermont State Hospital was flooded by Tropical Storm Irene.
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