AUGUSTA – A standing-room-only public hearing came to life Monday morning when Jack Nicholas, commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, outlined his proposal to reduce state funding to the department’s Office of Substance Abuse.

The proposed OSU cuts would trim a relatively modest $500,000 in fiscal year 2006, which begins July 1, 2005, and about $1 million in fiscal year 2007. The changes would decrease funding for substance abuse services and eliminate four full-time positions within the agency.

But a persuasive lineup of speakers told lawmakers and state officials that even these small changes are unacceptable.

Many who testified before the combined committees on appropriations and health and human services were young adults in their late teens and early 20s. Seventeen-year-old Persis Smith of Winterport told the legislators that her life was “a wreck” before she entered treatment for substance abuse 10 months ago. Without that intervention, she said, “I’d either be in prison, and the state would be paying for that, or I’d be in an institution, and the state would be paying for that, or I’d be dead.”

If the state cuts funding for substance abuse, Smith said, costs will go up in other areas, such as homelessness, corrections and emergency health care. Her residential treatment program and the continued counseling and support she’s getting have taken her off the streets and put her on a productive path. “Someday, maybe I’ll be sitting where you are,” she confidently told the attentive committee members.

Terrence Pinkham, 20, of Bangor credited the Day One program in Hollis with his survival. The father of a 19-month-old son, Pinkham said his treatment at Day One has allowed him to participate in drug court instead of serving a five-year prison term. Now, he said, he’s able to play an active role in his son’s life while planning his own future and beginning to heal fractured relationships with his parents and grandparents.

Like many who testified, Pinkham said that instead of cutting funds for substance abuse treatment, the state should raise dedicated revenues through a tax on alcohol sales. Asked if such a cost increase also might discourage inappropriate drinking, Pinkham shrugged. “I don’t know about that,” he said, “but I know what it would mean for these treatment programs.”

Others who testified included counselors and others who work directly with the substance abusing population. Barbara Royal, director of the Open Door Recovery Center in Ellsworth, said addicts are already underserved. It would be unacceptable for any other disease to go untreated because of a lack of services, she noted, yet there already are waiting lists of many months for addiction treatment.

“Many of us in this room have experienced the anguish and powerlessness that comes when addiction seeks to destroy someone we love. This pain is compounded when someone reaches out for help to no avail,” Royal said. “We implore you to search your hearts and minds for the compassion and awareness necessary to address the seriousness of this situation.”

Several treatment providers readily identified themselves as addicts in recovery and used their own case histories as evidence that treatment can be successful.

Lawmakers can anticipate a contentious and emotionally charged few weeks as they prepare to do battle with Gov. John Baldacci’s proposed biennial budget. Nowhere is this more true than in the Department of Health and Human Services, where legislators and officials are charged with shaving about $140 million over the next two years from the many health and social service programs provided through the state’s largest agency.

With projected state allocations of about $956 million in FY 2006 and about $1 billion in FY 2007, the DHHS budget consumes about one-third of the General Fund of state tax dollars. Over the next few weeks, that budget will be subjected to line-by-line scrutiny as state officials, lawmakers, consumers and service providers attempt to negotiate acceptable levels of service within the department’s fiscal constraints.

Commissioner Nicholas – a former state budget director sometimes criticized as a “bean counter” who doesn’t fully recognize the impacts of cuts in human service programs – said Monday that reductions must come from somewhere. For example, he said, the DHHS staff has managed to “save” funding in the proposed budget for voluntary foster care, a program that allows parents to relinquish their children into temporary state custody until their home situation stabilizes. But that success came, in part, at the expense of substance abuse funding. If lawmakers reject the OSU cuts, Nicholas said, “we’ll have to look for something that’s less important. And what will that be?”

Although many at Monday’s hearing supported the idea of a tax on alcohol sales, Baldacci so far has remained true to his campaign pledge not to impose new taxes. A spokesman for the governor said Monday afternoon that Baldacci is committed to comprehensive spending reforms and will not consider any new tax until all other options have been considered.