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Social services gets some breaks Legislature decides to add items vetoed by Kitzhaber in first bill By PETER WONG SALEM -- Some last-minute budget additions by lawmakers have Southern Oregon social services officials breathing easier after the Legislature adjourned. "We can say it is not all we hoped for," said Don Bruland, director of senior and disabled services for the Rogue Valley Council of Governments. "It is better than we anticipated in the closing weeks of the session. But it has to be said that we did take cuts." But a revised $2.2-billion budget for the Department of Human Resources, passed in the final hours last week, added back a number of items left out the first time: $3.5 million for coverage of about 1,700 low-income students under the Oregon Health Plan. Students must receive federal Pell Grants to be eligible. $1 million for seven school-based health clinics, including Scenic Middle School and Jewett Elementary School in Central Point. A startup grant is expiring. $1 million for "safety-net" health clinics, such as the Community Health Center in Jackson County, that serve people who earn too much to qualify for the Oregon Health Plan but do not have health insurance coverage. $2.8 million for state-funded abortions. $2 million more for area agencies on aging. $1.8 million for increases in provider wages, the money to be released by the legislative Emergency Board. $1 million more for Oregon Project Independence, services that allow elderly people to stay in their own homes instead of being placed in nursing homes. An estimated 260 more people will be helped. Bruland said the net gain is $500,000, because the legislative Emergency Board gave the program some money last year to cover increases in the minimum wage for service providers. $1 million more for 12 to 16 "medically fragile" children, who require expensive medications but do not qualify for help from other programs. The initial allocation was just $250,000. Hank Collins, Jackson County's director of health and human services, said he was pleased with the restorations, particularly for continuation of the school health clinics. "Things look a little better after all," he said. Although the last-minute actions restored and even improved the budget presented by Gov. John Kitzhaber, some items were still left out. The Legislature did not restore $2.6 million to pay spouses who stay home to care for disabled partners. The program does not qualify for matching federal grants, but employment of outside caregivers does. The Legislature did not restore direct support of a program aimed at teenage pregnancy, Students Today Aren't Ready for Sex (STARS), but put its $151,000 in the hands of the Emergency Board. The Department of Human Resources was told to develop a list of alternatives that emphasize abstinence and qualify for federal grants. Collins said he felt the STARS program could continue to operate in Jackson County. The program has been criticized by Sen. Eileen Qutub, R-Beaverton, chairwoman of the Legislature's joint budget subcommittee on human resources and a critic of Gov. Kitzhaber. STARS' biggest booster is Kitzhaber's wife, Sharon. The Department of Human Resources, the largest agency in state government, has a general-fund budget of $2.2 billion and an overall budget of $7.3 billion. After Kitzhaber vetoed the first human resources budget last week because it dropped money for state-funded abortions and doctor-assisted suicide, the Legislature restored that money and added more in the second budget. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA