AUGUSTA—The closure of a section of Charleston Correctional Facility and a reduction in state payments to hospitals were on a track toward being spared last week as legislative committees scrutinized spending cuts proposed by Gov. John Baldacci.

The Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety chose to delay the controversial closure of a housing unit at Charleston Correctional Facility, opting instead for other reductions that save the same amount of money.

The Health and Human Services Committee, meanwhile, spent much of last week wrestling with proposed cuts in funding for hospitals, but as of Friday had not reached consensus about what to do.

Both of these changes — and the rest of the supplemental budget — faced the scrutiny of the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee, which aims to submit the revamped budget package to the full Legislature by Friday. The measure is necessary because of a $140 million revenue downturn that affects money already budgeted. Legislative leaders have said they aim to approve the budget package by the end of January so its effects can be spread over as long a time as possible.

Sen. Peter Mills, R-Cornville, who is part of a subcommittee that has been focusing on the hospital funding issue, said Friday that he and other legislators needed the weekend to sort through “a number of options” that would avert funding cuts for small hospitals and hospitals that employ doctors.

“They’ve flooded us with information,” said Mills of various groups who have testified against the proposals. “We’re looking at a number of ways of getting out of this biennium (without making the cuts), but they’re only temporary solutions. Some of us would like to solve the problem permanently.”

Mills said he and many other lawmakers are convinced that the proposed cuts would threaten health care services for too many Mainers, particularly those who go to small hospitals.

Hospital administrators, along with various health care advocates, have rallied against the cuts, which would cost hospitals almost $13 million in state and federal funding between now and June 30, according to Baldacci’s budget document. Mary Mayhew of the Maine Hospital Association estimates that the loss to hospitals would be close to $33 million a year if the proposals become permanent.

“We await the recommendations of the subcommittee,” states a written report of the Health and Human Services Committee’s findings. “We have delayed making decisions on these items since they have the potential to significantly impact access to acute care, specialty care and primary health care services across the entire state.”

The Health and Human Services Committee was scheduled to present its findings to the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee this week.

In a series of work sessions last week, the Criminal Justice Committee developed an alternative to closing a housing unit at Charleston Correctional Facility, which has been operating as a temporary measure to ease overcrowding. The facility’s fate remains in question, however, because portions of at least three other Department of Corrections facilities are proposed for closure during the next biennial budget, which begins July 1.

Sen. Stan Gerzofsky, D-Brunswick, who chairs the committee, said it will be more appropriate for the facilities cuts in the Department of Corrections to be considered as a single budget item instead of being spread between two separate debates. That will allow a new state Board of Corrections, which was formed last session as part of a reconfiguration of county jails, the time and opportunity to weigh in on the issue.

Rep. Anne Haskell, D-Portland, who co-chairs the Criminal Justice Committee with Gerzofsky, agreed.

“We’d like the Board of Corrections to have the opportunity to be a part of the discussion,” said Haskell. “It seems like we are pre-empting their decision.”

Closing the Charleston facility would have saved approximately $560,000 in the current budget. The committee continued work on an alternative proposal over the weekend but last week had identified several other cuts that help make up the difference. They included reductions in prisoner advocate positions and training funds, curtailments of several third-party contracts and savings in utility, vehicle and boarding costs.

The Appropriations Committee had work sessions scheduled all this week and a goal of completing its work on the supplemental budget by Friday.

Following are other recommendations made by the various policy committees, according to written reports to the Appropriations Committee:

• The Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry recommended sparing two foresters in the Bureau of Public Lands, which are self-sustained from timber harvesting on public lands. 
•  The Business, Research and Economic Development Committee voted unanimously to support the budget as presented, but stated it would not support any further reductions or changes to the items in their jurisdiction.
• The Education and Cultural Affairs Committee “reluctantly” approved all of Baldacci’s proposals, including a $27 million reduction in funding for public schools and cuts in community colleges, adult education and the university system, and attached four recommendations: that the Appropriations Committee “make every effort” to restore a $229,000 cut in adult education to avoid the loss of federal matching funds; that the committee “wield whatever power you may have” to lift a hiring freeze on two federally funded positions at the Maine Arts Commission, which are vacant and not proposed to be cut; that the committee take no action on a proposal to cut funding for Maine Public Broadcasting Corp. MPBC, which faces revenue downturns including a proposed $117,000 cut in state funding, is working with the Education Committee on an arrangement that would avoid the closure of two transmission towers in northern Maine.
• The Health and Human Services Committee, in addition to its objections to proposed hospital reimbursement rates, asked that $10,000 of a $50,000 proposed cut be restored in mental health services funding and requested more time to study a proposal to change the payment schedule for nursing and residential care facilities. The committee also recommended exploration of combining and coordinating service providers as ways to save more money.
• The Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife opposed a $51,545 cut — which they propose to cover with money from the department’s carrying balances — that would have eliminated printing some law books. The committee is working on language that would authorize charging a fee for certain law books as well as a separate bill that would create a motorcycle and trailer specialty plate to benefit a fund for acquiring recreational property.
• The Committee on Labor objected to a total of about $287,000 in proposed cuts for the Maine Centers for Women, Work and Community and a range of rehabilitation services, including those for the blind and visually impaired. Arguing that these proposals would eliminate $286,000 in federal funding, the Labor Committee recommended a $287,000 cut in the Governor’s Training Initiative Program, which is already slated for a $70,000 reduction. The GTIP, an initiative by Gov. Baldacci and the departments of economic and community development and labor, is aimed at firms intending to expand or locate in Maine, providing reimbursements for training, retooling and recruitment.
• The Committee on Legal and Veteran’s Affairs decried a proposed $1.5 million cut in the Maine Clean Election Fund, stating it will “object to further reductions in the Maine Clean Election Fund that put the viability of the act into question,” according to a report of the committee’s recommendations. “This fund has been tapped again and again to balance the state budget and has yet to be made whole.”
• The Committee on Marine Resources proposed delaying the purchase of uniforms and restructuring an employee mileage reimbursement formula to eliminate a cap on weekly mileage and spare $1,208 worth of pager services and $2,500 in firearms qualification testing.
• The majority of the Committee on State and Local Government proposed rejection of a $4,300 cut to the Maine Rural Water Association because of its activities to avoid the “risk of water and waste water problems that cannot be solved.” The committee recommended finding the money elsewhere to cover the cost. The committee also requested $18,000 to reclassify positions in the State Archives and additional funds to pay for an increase in postage and printing costs in the June 2007 and November 2008 elections, which total $125,000. “This means the state cannot pay the vendors printing the ballots,” states the committee’s written recommendations. “This is a large loss for a business to take on behalf of the state.”
• The Taxation Committee offered an amendment to language in the budget document that was drafted by Maine Revenue Services to address concerns raised at a public hearing regarding the impact on owners of pass-through entities.

The Legislature’s other committees recommended adoption of all the supplemental budget proposals in their jurisdictions, with the exception of the Committee on Insurance and Financial Services, which had not posted a report on the Office of Fiscal and Program Review’s Web site as of Tuesday.