Oregon faces cuts in Bush budget.

Byline: David Steves The Register-Guard

SALEM - Under President Bush's austere domestic budget plan, Oregon would lose $769 million in federal aid over five years, according to a report issued Tuesday by a liberal-leaning national think tank.

The study, issued Tuesday by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, concluded that the cuts would affect a range of state- and locally run programs that are partially funded with federal dollars, including environmental programs, foster care, AIDS/HIV drug purchasing assistance, child care help and community development.

An Oregon economist whose organization helped in the report's release said the priorities behind Bush's budget proposal do not align with those of Oregonians.

"The president wants to shift federal priorities away from investing in Oregon's children, away from protecting the environment, and away from working families and toward a few super-wealthy families," said Michael Leachman of the Oregon Center for Public Policy.

The White House has defended its proposal, saying the cuts are needed in order to keep a lid on federal spending and make room for the tax cuts the president favors.

Separately from Tuesday's report, the Oregon Department of Human Services has produced a "high level review" of the president's budget proposal, in which it details many of the likely reductions. It said the state's medical assistance programs stand to absorb a 3.5 percent cut; the Children's Health Insurance Program would see a $38 million reduction; and the state tax receipts from organizations that provide medical and residential elder care would be reduced by $130 million. The report doesn't spell out the time frame for these cuts.

In most budget areas, the state review does not assess the Bush proposal in financial terms or by the number of Oregonians whose services would be reduced or eliminated. Rather, it says, for instance, that Oregon "may stand to lose significantly" in federal Medicaid funding and that the federal budget would have a "significant impact" on Oregon's Food Stamp and child welfare systems, and a "negative impact" on families trying to become self-sufficient.

However, Oregon's review of the president's budget proposal also found that the budget's emphasis on certain programs might increase dollars that flow to the state.

The focus on adolescent abstinence from sex, the emphasis on welfare aid for "family formation and healthy marriage" and on adoption services would potentially increase the flow of dollars to Oregon for qualifying programs, the state concluded.

The national report released Tuesday looked not just at health and human services, but gave a state-by-state breakdown of projected reductions across all discretionary areas of the federal budget. Among the projected reductions for 2006-10 for Oregon:

A $313 million combined cut in elementary, secondary, special and adult vocational education and school improvements funding for the five-year period;

The elimination of nutrition aid for 8,600 women, infants and children by 2010;

1,100 children would lose services by 2010 through Head Start and services for those who are abused and neglected;

The elimination of rental assistance vouchers for 5,600 households by 2010;

The number of children served by child care assistance would drop by 3,400 by 2009;

Low-income energy assistance funds would fall by $2.1 million by 2010;

HIV/AIDS funding would drop by $3.2 million in the five-year period;

Community block grants would drop by $102.3 million in the five-year period.

Oregon's portion of the cuts are from the $71 billion in cuts projected nationally from funding that is distributed to states and local governments. Including cuts to spending administered by federal agencies, the nationwide reduction would reach a total of $214 billion, according to the center that produced the analysis.

The cuts proposed by Bush are the deepest by a president since Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, said Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

While the cuts in Oregon and other states are likely to be unpopular, Greenstein said the Bush administration appeared to have a strategy to push them through. The president has proposed that Congress pass statutory caps on future spending for discretionary programs for 2007-10.

For Congress to spend beyond those proposed caps, it would have to increase the federal deficit or rescind some of the president's tax cuts, Greenstein said.

Russ Walker, Oregon director of the anti-tax group FreedomWorks, said he thinks the study is part of liberals' strategy to attack Bush's policy of reducing taxes.

"I think that's crazy. You have to control spending and you have to grow the economy, which is what these tax cuts do," Walker said. "We think the president is on the right track."

ON THE WEB:

To see the national report and Oregon-specific information on President Bush's proposed cuts in discretionary spending, visit the following groups' Web sites:

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: www.cbpp.org

Oregon Center for Public Policy: www.ocpp.org