By STEPHEN MAJORS
Associated Press Writer
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The state agency that administers programs for poor and low-income families is cutting almost $80 million from its budget, including millions of dollars for a welfare program.
Records obtained by The Associated Press Wednesday show the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services also is cutting back on funding for adoption services, money to detect Medicaid fraud, and funds to administer the state's child support program.
In many cases the money being cut goes to county agencies that manage programs for Ohio citizens. It will be up to the counties to decide how to rework their local budgets to deal with the loss of state dollars, which could lead to cuts in services to Ohioans.
"It does impact the money provided to the counties, and obviously counties will be looking at how they deliver their programs," said state Job and Family Services spokesman Dennis Evans.
"These are difficult decisions that need to be made in order to meet current budget conditions."
About $36 million in cuts will come from money that had been set aside for the Medicare Part D prescription drug program but is no longer needed, Evans said.
No senior currently under the program will lose coverage, he said.
The agency made the cuts to comply with Gov. Ted Strickland's request that most state agencies cut 4.75 percent from their budgets.
The state faces a projected budget deficit of $540 million during the final year of the state's two-year, $52 billion budget.
Earlier this year Strickland announced a previous round of cuts that totaled $733 million.
Job and Family Services was able to avoid making cuts that would have an impact on county agency operations during the first round of trimming.
"In our earlier cuts we took the brunt of it internally, so that the counties didn't realize any of those cuts," Evans said.
"This time around, while there weren't any programs that we directly eliminated, we couldn't shield the counties."
Strickland ordered that two of the department's programs be protected from budget cuts -- the $9.3 billion the state sets aside to provide Medicaid to low-income Ohioans until receiving a federal reimbursement, and $25 million for disability assistance.
The department will be cutting $12.7 million -- or about 5 percent -- of the $267.6 million it had been spending in its share of the federal-state Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
The program, signed into law by former President Bill Clinton, provides welfare benefits to the poor while pushing them to find employment.
The agency is also cutting $4 million, or 5 percent, of the money it had set aside for adoption services, and 5 percent, and nearly $400,000 out of $8.2 million set aside for the state's child support program.
Excluding Medicaid health benefits and disability assistance, the original budget for the department for the fiscal year that began in July was $1.3 billion.
Two rounds of cuts have knocked off about $131 million, or about 10 percent.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
