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As of fiscal year 2008–2009, California’s Mental Health Ser-vices Act (MHSA) has distributed $3.2 billion in new tax revenues to county mental health systems. This voter-approved act attempts to address the needs of unserved and underserved consumers with severe mental illness by implementing a “whatever it takes” approach. The research literature indicates that the incidence of involuntary treatment may gauge the overall functioning of the public mental health system. Consistent with the notion that the MHSA may facilitate effective treatment of severe mental illness, the authors tested the hypothesis that the incidence of two types of involuntary treatment—72-hour holds and 14-day psychiatric civil commitments—declines as the enhancement of service access and quality is supported by MHSA funds. The investigators obtained quarterly counts of involuntary 72-hour holds (N= 593,751) and …