State funding for alcohol and other drug treatment would be gutted under a budget proposal forwarded by Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, the Eugene Register-Guard reported Dec. 2.

Kulongoski's budget plan calls for providing healthcare services for an additional 100,000 children, expanding the Oregon Health Plan and opening a new Oregon State Hospital in Salem in 2011. But the changes come at the expense of addiction, long-term care, and child-care programs.

The two-year budget would slash funding for addiction treatment 82 percent, and cut spending on community mental health by 17.6 percent.

Oregon treatment providers predicted that the cuts, if approved by the legislature, would result in more people with addictions seeking expensive care in emergency rooms rather than getting recovery assistance. However, the director of the state Department of Human Services said that many people with addiction and mental-health problems would receive new coverage when the Oregon Health Plan is expanded.