The Oregon Legislature’s emergency budget board restored more than $2 million to senior services that had been cut through the federal government austerity budgeting strategy known as sequestration when it met last week..
Cuts to the federal Older Americans Act undermined the budgets for meals-on-wheels and other nutrition programs; in-home services, transportation, legal services, elder abuse prevention and care-giver support.
“We are backfilling sequestration to these particular programs,” said Sen. Richard Devlin, D-Tualatin. “This should by no means be interpreted as a precedent. This is a one-time effort.”
Devlin added that other programs facing federal cuts, such as education, should not expect the Oregon Legislature to fill their gaps just because the senior programs are getting restored.
The money for Oregon to spend comes from a change in the senior medical tax deduction that the Legislature approved in October. Since that change results in higher taxes for affluent seniors, lawmakers vowed to use the bulk of a $26 million fund to shore up programs for senior citizens.
About half of that money was budgeted in this year’s regular session in March, but budget writers such as Devlin pushed to wait on releasing the entire amount until spending plans were more detailed, and the state was ensured that revenues would meet projections.
Friday, the budget board also voted to release $390,000 in funding that will put a geriatric mental specialist in all 33 of the state’s county-based community mental health programs -- rising to meet the needs of both Oregon’s aging population and increasing mental health challenges.
Money dedicated to training in-home caregivers to assist people with mental disorders was pushed back until September, but Jim Davis of United Seniors of Oregon told The Lund Report that was always the plan. The Legislature intends to spend a total of $3.5 million from the tax fund on senior mental health this year.
In another win for Oregon’s most vulnerable citizens, the Legislature took $3 million from the fund to expand the popular Oregon Project Independence program to include people with disabilities in addition to seniors.
Oregon Project Independence offers middle-class seniors assistance that helps them stay in their homes. Since these seniors don’t qualify for Medicaid, the program relies on volatile general fund dollars.
Because $3 million only goes so far, Rep. Jennifer Williamson, D-Portland, said expanding the program to those with disabilities will be limited at first to five counties in northwest Oregon -- a swath of territory stretching from Salem to Astoria that excludes the Portland metro counties. The program will be administered by NorthWest Senior & Disability Services, the federally designated Area Agency on Aging for this region of Oregon.
Legislators on Friday said little as they approved a multitude of budget items, one by one, but in a statement, Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, wrote, “Partisan gridlock in Washington D.C. led to budget cuts without regard to who got hurt. Shutdown politics in Congress threatened services seniors rely on every day. This Legislature made government work for Oregon and her people. We made it work for our seniors.”
President Obama agreed to accept the sequestration cuts only after U.S. House Republicans threatened default on the country’s credit and later budget negotiations went nowhere.
In his joint statement with Courtney, Sen. Alan Bates, D-Medford, added: “Taking care of our senior citizens is critically important. The services we’re protecting will help more seniors continue to live independent, productive lives and receive the care they need. It makes great financial sense and it’s the right thing to do.”
Chris can be reached at [email protected].
