• 2000 budget: $126 million

• Current budget: $88 million

• Employees lost: 665, down to 1,580 positions

• What the House did: Cut another $12 million, to $76 million, although some could be replaced by increased Department of Revenue collections

• The Senate’s take: Concerned about whether foster children will be adopted, vulnerable adults protected; no solution yet proposed

• The agency reaction: “Represents a devastating blow to the agency.”

— Kim Aydlette, DSS director, on the House’s budget proposal

Department of Mental Health

• 2000 budget: $190 million

• Current budget: $168 million

• Employees lost: 892, down to 5,108

• What the House did: Cut an additional $6 million, to $162 million, with the hope the agency could recoup some of that by selling the state hospital

• The Senate’s take: Fear the hospital won’t sell quickly, worried about 60 mental health patients currently in emergency rooms because no beds are available; no immediate solution.

• The agency reaction: “There’s an impending crisis, based on what I see in the House budget.”

— George Gintoli, Department of Mental Health director

Department of Education

• 2001 per-pupil spending: $2,002

• Current per-pupil spending: $1,743

• Teaching positions lost: An estimated 1,000 statewide

• What the House did: Raised the base cost to $1,827, but eliminated reading and other initiatives

• The Senate’s take: Expect to fight among themselves over how best to calculate education spending, whether in total dollars or per-pupil costs; expect to fight over programs cut by House and transfers of state lottery money for core needs rather than scholarships

• The agency reaction: “If you’re going to get there, you’re going to have to have resources.”

— Inez Tenenbaum, state superintendent of education, on the state’s not making its goal of being among the top 25 states in school improvement

Department of Natural Resources

• 2000 budget: $29 million

• Current budget: $20 million

• Employees lost: 277, including 80 game wardens, to 831

• What the House did: cut another $4 million, to $16 million, although some could be recouped through increased tax collections

• The Senate’s take: Vow to restore some of the money, saying the state relies on its environment as one of its greatest draws for tourists and retirees; no concrete solution on how to do it

• The agency reaction: “We do not have the manpower to enforce our state’s commercial and recreational game and fish laws.”

— John Frampton, Department of Natural Resources director

State Arts Commission

• 2001 budget: $5.6 million in 2001

• Current budget: $3.4 million

• Employees lost: down 7 positions, to 31

• What the House did: cut another $500,000, to $2.9 million, with the possibility that half could be recouped through additional tax collections

• The Senate’s take: Focusing on some of the larger agencies, just as the House did

• The agency reaction: “The major parts of the budget that they’re trying to hold harmless, education and health care, have costs that keep going up. So the rest of the budget keeps getting squeezed even more.”

— Ken May, arts commission deputy director