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 Wednesday by The Associated Press 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.
"These are difficult decisions that need to be made in order to meet current budget conditions." said state Job and Family Services spokesman Dennis Evans.
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.
(This version corrects that prescription drug coverage is not being cut.)
