Byline: John J. Monahan

BOSTON - As community organizations and affected agencies sorted through budget Web sites and announcements yesterday to find out how the governor's billion dollars in budget cuts will affect their programs, some voiced frustration and others said they were grateful

Community health centers, doctors and hospitals are being targeted to absorb more than $200 million cut from MassHealth programs for low-income families and seniors, from its $6.8 billion in funding. The actual impact, however, remains unclear.

Fawn A. Phelps, director of Health Care for All, which has promoted the new mandatory health care program, praised the governor for his "leadership in protecting residents' access to health care" by leaving the new state health insurance programs intact.

Ms. Phelps said the governor imposed no caps on enrollments in state subsidized medical care programs or medical services provided through those programs, as happened in the 2002 state budget crisis, which produced long waiting lists for MassHealth enrollment and cuts in services funded by the state, such as dentures for seniors.

"There are significant cuts to providers, doctors, hospital and community health centers, but they are still trying to figure out what the cuts mean for them," she said, because the state has yet to outline how the reductions will be achieved.

The state will also cut the senior nutrition program by $202,000 and cut $3.9 million from the elder home care case management program's $106 million budget.

Also eliminated was half of the $100,000 the state had approved for Worcester's comprehensive marketing plan.

David McMahon, co-director of Dismas House in Worcester, said the loss of all of its $80,000 in state funds will hurt its three programs that provide housing, treatment and job services to prisoners recently released from jails. He said the agency has had its state funding cut and vetoed in the past, and again it will have to find other funding from renewed donation appeals and private sources.

"None of the options are pleasant. We are hoping we will survive this year and find ways not to reduce services. Worst case is we may have to have layoffs and face an inability to meet the needs of as many former prisoners," Mr. McMahon said.

While the governor said he would phase out up to 1,000 jobs, it appears many of those will come from retirements and job freezes, short-term furloughs and elimination of new proposed jobs, rather than layoffs.

The Executive Office of Human Services faces a $1.5 million cut from its $148.3 million budget. That will leave its operations with $146.8 million, almost the same amount it got in the year that ended July 1. The Executive Office of Transportation with a $4.5 million payroll is facing only the loss of possibly one unfilled job to meet its total cut of $116,000.

State police, with a $256 million payroll, will need to cut back less than 1

percent, losing $2.3 million to the governor's emergency spending cuts. State police overtime, budgeted at $500,000, will lose $240,000.

Local law enforcement will see a larger impact. The state's $21.3 million community policing programs will be reduced by $5 million, and the governor's plan cancels $4 million to help pay for more local police. Corrections, budgeted to spend $530 million, will have to cut $1.3 million from new projects.

State colleges and universities will see their funding cut overall by 5

percent. That includes a $24.6 million cut from the University of Massachusetts' $492 million budget; $1.4 million from Fitchburg State College's $27.8 million budget; $1.18 million from Worcester State College's $12.8 million budget; $641,000 from Mount Wachusett Community College's budget; and $761,000 from Quinsigamond Community College's $15.2 million budget.

Gail E. Carberry, president of Quinsigamond Community College, said yesterday she hopes to make up the cuts at her campus without laying off faculty or raising student fees. She said she would leave 10 positions unfilled and hold off on $200,000 in pending computer purchases for classrooms. "Our plan is to ride this out," she said, noting that because of increased enrollment she does not want to reduce the current faculty and she said students can't afford fee increases to make up for the lost funding.

Quinsigamond also lost earmark funding of $400,000 to start

a nursing training program in conjunction with the Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School, which Ms. Carberry said would have to be postponed.

At the University of Massachusetts, President Jack Wilson said all of its campuses will achieve savings through reductions in the work force and consolidations of their operations.

To start, he is going to move much of his office's

86-member staff from a high-priced high rise in the Boston financial district to less costly office space at the school's Collaborative Services Facility at 333 South St. in Shrewsbury. UMass Amherst officials said they were implementing a flexible hiring freeze but announced no layoffs.

The cuts also are impacting many other local programs and projects around Central Massachusetts, with some losing as much as half or all of their state grants.

The Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University will lose $2.7 million of a $5.5 million earmark and the state is cutting a $25,000 earmark to fix up the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Worcester back to $12,000.

The governor cut $125,000 for the Hillside Restoration Project in Boylston; $118,000 for a town project in Rutland; $50,000 from the Youth Grow program in Worcester; half of the $200,000 for a statewide Buy Local agriculture program; half of the $125,000 budgeted for the Greater YMCA of Worcester youth programs; and all $75,000 from the Greater Gardner Community Development Corp. programs.

Other local cuts include $50,000 for a public safety program in Uxbridge; $50,000 for the Commonwealth Cup event in Worcester; all $75,000 earmarked for the Marlboro 2010 programs; and all $25,000 allocated for the Boylston Bicentennial celebration.

ART: PHOTO

PHOTOG: T&G Staff/CHRISTINE PETERSON

CUTLINE: WORCESTER - Gov. Deval L. Patrick says hello yesterday to employee Samuel Mduwimana at GoodGlove USA, Nokona Baseball factory, during a celebration of their new facility on Fremont Street. Nokona is the only mass manufacturer of baseball and softball gloves in the nation. The gloves will be stitched and laced here.