Oregon Public Broadcasting

Advocates for the poor, elderly and disabled packed a Legislative hearing room in Salem Tuesday evening.  It was the first in a series of hearings to allow the public to weigh in on a round of proposed budget cuts.  Salem correspondent Chris Lehman reports.

Lawmakers are in a tricky position.  They know they have to cut money from the current budget that runs through this June, but they don’t know how much.  

So they asked state agencies to come up with a list of some $800 million in cutbacks.  No sooner had the list been made public than the public started howling.  

Last night’s hearing focused on human services.

Patti Whitney-Wise of the Oregon Hunger Relief Task Force said possible cuts to public assistance would be a huge step backwards.

Patti Whitney-Wise:  “We just made some decent improvements to that program for the first time in decades in 2007.  To cut any of those improvements now is really unconscionable.”

Lawmakers are waiting to see how much money they stand to gain from the Federal stimulus package being worked on in Congress.  They hope to finalize the list of immediate cutbacks later this month.

Online:

List of proposed state budget cuts