Human services spending plan passes.

Byline: David Steves The Register-Guard

SALEM - The Legislature delivered its biggest remaining budget - an $11.5 billion spending plan for health and human services - to the governor Tuesday as it raced to check off items from its 2007 "to do" list.

Lawmakers had clung to long-shot hopes they could start the march to adjournment and wrap up in the wee hours. But that became an impossibility in the afternoon, when the House bogged down with parliamentary motions by minority Republicans to pull bills from committee that had been left for dead because they hadn't attracted enough support to pass.

The already-sputtering floor session ground to a halt by early evening, when Republicans refused to allow consideration of 18 of the bills remaining on the day's work calendar.

Despite the slowdown, lawmakers from both chambers said they were optimistic that they could adjourn early enough to beat their self-imposed deadline to end the session by Friday.

"I think it's down to Thursday," said House Majority Leader Dave Hunt, D-Gladstone.

Sen. Margaret Carter, who oversaw the Legislature's assembly of the human services budget, said that, considering the toll that revenue cuts at the start of the decade took on low-income health care, senior services, foster care and other safety-net programs for Oregon's most vulnerable citizens, this spending plan helps bring many services closer to their levels of the late 1990s.

"This is the greatest, most enhanced budget we've had since we had to reduce services," said the Portland Democrat who chaired the human services subcommittee of the Joint Ways and Means Committee.

The human services budget, up 13 percent from the agency's current spending plan, relied primarily on a $600 million uptick in state general fund appropriations. The budget relies mainly on $3.3 million from the state general fund and $6.9 billion from the federal government.

Some supported the plan with reservations, including Sen. Laurie Monnes-Anderson. The Gresham Democrat said it was a stretch to call it an excellent budget, because it gave increases that brought services closer to meeting the state's needs, but didn't hit that mark.

"This budget is taking a baby step to the goal where we need to go," she said.

Some of the bill's opponents issued similar objections. Sen. Jason Atkinson, R-Ashland, said he couldn't support a bill that did not fully restore past reductions to the program Oregon Project Independence, which allows frail elderly people to remain in their homes, rather than enter assisted living or nursing-care facilities.

And Sen. Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg, said he was dismayed that public schools ended up receiving such a large share of the overall budget that programs such as mental health were still wanting. The human services budget ended up with $53 million, about $5 million of which goes toward the development of a new Oregon State Hospital and the rest going into community-based services. Advocates had requested $115 million for those services.

"We have chosen not to put the resources that are necessary into that network and that is a shame," Kruse said.

Another high-profile piece of the human services budget, the Oregon Health Plan, was sustained at its current level in the budget bill approved by the Senate. At the program's peak, more than 100,000 poor adults were enrolled in the "OHP Standard" program, which provided insurance for those who weren't eligible for Medicaid. It's since been cut to under 20,000 enrollees.

That program could add back 10,000 people if voters approve the cigarette tax increase the Legislature referred to the November ballot. The measure is primarily aimed at creating a "Healthy Kids Plan" but uses some of the revenue for other health services, including the Oregon Health Plan.

The Legislature also took final action on other issues Tuesday, including:

Cell phones: The Senate sent Gov. Ted Kulongoski House Bill 2872, which subjects drivers younger than 18 to a ticket of up to $360 if they were using a cell phone while committing another traffic infraction. It passed 45-14, with half the Republicans present opposing the bill.

School construction: A bill giving local boards of education the authority to impose fees on new development to pay for school construction. Senate Bill 1036 authorizes school boards to collect $1 for each square foot of new home or apartment construction and 50 cents per square foot of nonresidential development. The option would be available for local schools to consider next fall. It passed 50-9.

Identity theft: A bill shepherded through the Legislature by Eugene Democratic Sen. Floyd Prozanski reached the governor's desk on a unanimous House vote. Senate Bill 583 establishes safeguards for personal information that could be stolen. It requires agencies and companies to notify consumers when a security breach compromises the confidentiality of their personal information, such as a Social Security number. The bill also allows consumers whose identity may have been stolen to put a security freeze on their credit files.