SALEM- As expected, the Legislative Emergency Board voted to restore $17.1 million in state funding to the Oregon Department of Human Services on Thursday.
In a press release sent out Thursday afternoon, Senate President Courtney, D-Salem, said, “We know it is absolutely the right thing to do to keep serving those who need help the most-especially our senior citizens and children with disabilities.”
He continued by saying that the Legislature’s priorities will “continue to be protecting Oregon’s most vulnerable and avoiding higher costs down the road.”
Senior Republican on the Emergency Board, Sen. Jackie Winters, R-Salem, said she was glad to support the funding of the programs but was concerned about the future.
“Seniors and people with disabilities are the most vulnerable in our society. Today’s actions will help for awhile but we need long term solutions to deal with these issues,” said Winters in a press release sent out by the Senate Republican office.
The programs saved by Emergency Board’s actions include the Oregon Project Independence which provides in home assistance to seniors, Medicaid In-Home Care programs, Community Mental Health programs for those covered by Medicaid, and the Developmental Disabilities Family Support Program which provides financial assistance to families raising developmentally disabled children.
Before the Board voted on providing the funding, Rep. Vicki Berger, R-Salem, cautioned the members by saying, “At some point, and maybe not today but next session, we’re going to have to take a hard look at what we didn’t give up to save these and ask ourselves the really hard questions: What are we going to have to give up in the future to save these base-level services to Oregonians?”
“These things will be back to haunt us for sure because the life boat is not getting bigger, and the needs are,” Berger added.
Most of these programs now will be covered for funding through the remainder of the 2009-2011 biennium, and the others will be covered through March 2011, giving the Board time to see what more can be done to provide funding for them.
Granting these funds, which had been cut during Governor Ted Kulongoski’s allotment process to balance the state budget, allowed the DHS to retain $14 million they had received in federal funding. If they had not received the Emergency Board’s funds, they would have become ineligible to get the promised federal funds.
“These programs rise to the point that if we do not take action, many of these programs will end up paying far more,” said Rep. Peter Buckley, D-Ashland, confirming that there will need to be action in the future, taking into account the reality of next year’s revenue forecasts.
The Emergency Board is a twenty-member, bipartisan committee which operates during the interim session to change agency budgets when the Legislature is not in session; and it has access to a legislatively appropriated emergency fund.
