SALEM - A looming cut in state funding of local corrections programs may cause some counties to give the job back to the state.

Officials say that would begin eroding a nearly decade-old arrangement under which counties supervise for the state 30,000 felons on probation or parole.

The funding cut is one effect of voters' rejection Feb. 3 of an $800 million tax increase passed by legislators last year.

Lawmakers provided that failure of the tax boost would trigger $544 million in automatic spending cuts on May 1 to keep the budget balanced - including $17.8 million from state funding of community corrections.

The funding cut is steep enough that several counties are seriously considering an option in state law of giving parole and probation officer tasks back to the state, said Ginger Martin, community corrections director for the state Corrections Department.

No counties have yet given formal notice they plan to do that. Linn and Clackamas counties have done the most to inquire about the process, Martin said.

Corrections officials may seek money from the Legislative Emergency Board in April to soften some of the cuts, a decision that Corrections Director Max Williams said is just in the discussion stage with Gov. Ted Kulongoski's staff.

Because of the pending cuts, though, there's likely to be a long line for part of the board's $39 million emergency fund.

Under the community corrections system set up by the 1995 Legislature, the state agreed to pick up the cost if counties would take over the job of supervising released convicts who live and often work in their communities.

Counties can hand the job back to the state if funding falls below a baseline level - which is the exact level of current state funding, before the pending automatic cuts.

Community corrections is more than just supervision; counties also provide work release and other programs.

The funding cut would cause most counties to "reduce correctional treatment, such as mental health treatment, anger management, and sex offender treatment," the Corrections Department said in a January report on potential effects if the tax increase failed.

The agency also estimated about one-third of counties would reduce or eliminate drug and alcohol addiction treatment for offenders. The state would have to take over those programs if a county dropped out of the system, Martin said, without money for additional staff to run them.

She said the funding cut probably would cause most counties to lay off some parole-probation officers, leading to bigger caseloads for those remaining and minimal supervision of some offenders.

That's not acceptable to Linn County Commissioner Roger Nyquist, who said his county likely would hand the job back to the state if lawmakers don't restore the cuts. Linn County's state funding would drop by $650,000, to $6 million, in the current two-year state budget if no money is restored.

Nyquist said that would reduce employees and could lead to what's called by some in the field "case banking." That means, Nyquist said, that probationers would merely "send in a form once a month, and it takes six months to figure out they didn't because they get so many goofy forms.

"Public safety is the most important thing we do in county government," he said. "Are we prepared to be a willing participant in comprising the safety of citizens? No."

State budget analysts estimate counties foot about 25 percent of the cost of supervising released convicts, which might include costs of providing facilities for a probationer reporting office or a work release center.

"The state would lose whatever the local contribution is" if a county turned the chore back to the state, said Paul Snider of the Association of Oregon Counties.

The state wouldn't own the field offices under a state takeover of the duties but would have to try to work out lease arrangements, Martin said, and the state doesn't have administrators to run them.

She said other complications would include making local workers state employees, redoing contracts with people such as addiction treatment providers and extricating data from county computer systems to put on a state system.

"Pretty much anything you need to do to run a business would have to be addressed in some way," she said.

For that reason, she said, a county has to give 180 days' notice if it wants to get out of the parole-probation business.

"It's another consequence of Measure 30," said Williams of the defeated tax measure. As a legislator last year, Williams voted for the tax boost.

"The community corrections model is the right model," said Williams, by keeping management of services at the community level. "The Department of Corrections would not want to have that responsibility back."