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House ignores veto threat Sends human resource budget to Senate for vote By PETER WONG Items that missed the budget Selected items that failed to make it into the Department of Human Resources budget, which the Oregon House approved Thursday: Continuation of seven school-based health clinics, including those at Scenic Middle School and Jewett Elementary School in Central Point, $1 million from the general fund. A startup grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is expiring. Expansion of treatment programs for drug and alcohol abuse, $10 million from the general fund. The budget contains another $10 million, including $2 million in federal grants, that Gov. John Kitzhaber requested. Some Oregon Health Plan components, including $3.5 million for about 1,700 low-income college students on federal Pell Grants, and $2 million for interpretive services for health providers. Higher payments for care providers, based upon increased impairment of elderly and disabled clients, $2.7 million from the general fund. The budget does provide $3.2 million more for general increases in rates charged by providers of community-based care. Pay for spouses who stay home to care for disabled partners, $2.6 million, which does not qualify for federal matching grants. The department was told to find ways to employ outside caregivers, who qualify for federal help. Prevention of teenage pregnancy through the Students Today Aren't Ready for Sex (STARS) program, $151,000 from the general fund. The department was told to develop a list of alternatives that emphasize abstinence and qualify for federal grants. Source : Legislative Fiscal Office. SALEM -- Despite a veto threat by Gov. John Kitzhaber that turns on one-thousandth of its total, the Oregon House voted Thursday to approve a human resources budget that drops state money for abortions and doctor-assisted suicide. The 33-24 vote, largely along party lines, moved the general-fund budget of $2.2 billion to the Senate. The Legislature's budget writers retreated from some of the larger cuts they proposed earlier. Their two-year budget for the Department of Human Resources, the largest agency in state government, continues dental coverage for 80,000 poor adults under the Oregon Health Plan and health insurance subsidies for 5,800 people in families above the federal poverty level. It also adds money for expansion of drug and alcohol treatment, though only half of what Kitzhaber asked, and employment of people with severe disabilities. But it drops $2.8 million for abortions for poor women, and a small amount for doctor-assisted suicides. "The issue is about giving poor women the same access to reproductive health care as all other women," said House Minority Leader Kitty Piercy, D-Eugene. "This is about fairness -- and we are supposed to be here about fairness." The report accompanying the budget describes the cut as "eliminating payment for Oregon Health Plan medical services that are not matched with federal Medicaid dollars." "This is not a social issue, but something important to taxpayers," said Rep. Leslie Lewis, R-Newberg, House co-chairwoman of the Legislature's joint budget committee and the budget's floor manager. She said neither the federal government nor 34 states pay for abortions, except to save the life of a mother, and that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld bans on publicly funded abortions. The issue of doctor-assisted suicide was not mentioned during the debate. Democrat Kitzhaber told Republican legislative leaders earlier this week he would veto the budget if the $2.8 million is not restored. He said voters have made it clear they support state-funded abortions (1986) and doctor-assisted suicide (1994 and 1997). "If the Legislature wishes to overturn the state's policy on Medicaid abortions or death with dignity, it should sponsor bills which specifically make such changes rather than seeking to bury these actions in a budget measure," Kitzhaber wrote. Kitzhaber said Thursday if Republican leaders choose to ask Oregon voters to lock up Oregon's initial share of $180 million from the national tobacco settlement in a trust fund, it would foreclose the last best possibility of using millions for public schools and social programs in the next two years. "The leadership is doing exactly what they said they were going to do -- set a level of spending and take the tobacco money off the table," he said. "I want people to realize what this means in terms of funding programs." Other Democratic representatives took aim during the debate at other parts of the budget. Among them were the halving of Kitzhaber's request for $20 million to expand drug and alcohol treatment, the elimination of 1,700 low-income college students from Oregon Health Plan coverage just two years after it was restored, and no more money for in-home services for elderly people. But the budget spared bigger cuts in the Oregon Health Plan, which serves about 375,000 people under the federal poverty level, and a 2-year-old health insurance subsidy for families that earn too much to qualify for the plan. It also retained $2.1 million for an initiative to match severely disabled people with jobs, including about 200 people in Jackson and Josephine counties. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA