A couple walks across the campus of Oregon State University-Cascades in 2021. (Bulletin file)

Central Oregon may have a triumph and a defeat in the Oregon Legislature’s budget for the next two years.

Care for children when they are experiencing a severe mental health crisis appears to be a winner. Oregon State University-Cascades appears to be a loser.

Changes can come in the last days of a session, but those wins and losses seemed clear as of Wednesday morning.

When a child is in a severe mental health crisis, they need to be treated with good care in the right environment. An emergency room is not the right place for it. A child can be constantly exposed to more trauma and tumult.

St. Charles Health System has had to keep children in such crisis in its emergency room, because families don’t have better options. A child in a severe behavioral health crisis can spend weeks in the emergency department.

It’s not just an issue in Central Oregon. It’s a problem across the state.

When Bend Democrats state Reps. Emerson Levy and Jason Kropf and state Sen. Anthony Broadman, briefed us on this legislative session at the beginning of the year, this was the first issue they brought up. Their initial goal was to set up a pilot of three state pediatric psychiatric and mental health treatment facilities in different regions across the state. They switched their focus to trying to get one in Central Oregon. And as Levy told us, if you look at  the amended House Bill 5006, there is “$3,121,146” for a Central Oregon child psychiatric facility in Deschutes County.

There’s work to be done to make a facility a reality. It’s about as solid a kickstarter as you could ask for.

OSU-Cascades has been campaigning for years in the Legislature for a student health and recreation center. It would be a place for mental and physical health on campus. Other public colleges in Oregon have one. OSU-Cascades does not.

The request was for the Legislature to add to the money raised for the building and 24 acres of land reclamation, as OSU turns a mine and demolition pit into a campus. Students were chipping in $20 million in fees. OSU was coming up with $22 million in debt, grants and gifts. The hope was to get $42 million in state support.

That $42 million was not in the amended capital construction budget and bonding discussed on Tuesday morning. OSU-Cascades has missed out at this stage in legislative budgets before. Many possible projects across the state also didn’t get funded this session. Legislators must make choices.

“It was a very difficult decision,” said state Sen. Fred Girod, R-Stayton, co-chair of the Joint Committee On Ways and Means Subcommittee on Capital Construction. “We just didn’t have the money to do them right now.”

Legislative leadership chose to dedicate a big chunk of what they had to Portland. Portland State University got $85 million for a performing arts center, $52 million for a parking structure and $85 million for student housing. We can’t say that is a wrong choice. When will OSU-Cascades be the right choice?