HARRISBURG -- Esther Kuhn fears she might end up on the streets if the state stops funding the programs that provide a safe home, help her cope with a developmental disability and transport her from Mercer County to visit her 6-year-old daughter in Indiana County.

Eric Coolidge's son might not become a fifth-generation Tioga County dairy farmer.

Young children in Lebanon would lose their full-day kindergarten program.

Museums and historical sites would close.

Those who testified at a public hearing yesterday said that's what could happen if the House passes the Senate Republican budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. The Senate recently approved a $27.3 billion spending plan, $1 billion less than the one passed last year.

The House is unlikely to follow suit, but if the Senate budget were to go forward, it would "change all of the good things in my life," Miss Kuhn, 25, told lawmakers yesterday. "If I lose services, who will help me shop for groceries and cook? How will I eat healthy meals?"

She said there are many Pennsylvanians like her who depend on state-funded support programs.

"You must decide if it is important for all people in Pennsylvania to live a safe life, a good life," she told the House Appropriations Committee. "It is important to me."

It's important to Vini Portzline of Harrisburg, too.

After a spinal-cord injury 19 years ago, she depends on an aide from the state-funded Attendant Care Program so she can work part time and participate in community activities. Without that help, "instead of paying taxes, purchasing goods and contributing to my community, I would be using up many more tax dollars in an institution," Mrs. Portzline told lawmakers.

"Attendant Care is just one of the programs of great importance to people with disabilities which would be deeply cut" in the Senate budget, she said. "I know that times are tough and money is scarce, but I also know that the answer is not to cut critical programs."

Meanwhile, businessmen and taxpayer organizations testified that Senate Republicans are right to hold the line on spending, avoiding tax increases.

The business consortium CompetePA said it would oppose any budget that increases spending because that would require tax increases that would devastate the economy.

David W. Patti, president of the Pennsylvania Business Council, condemned any "knee-jerk opposition" to the Senate budget, which doesn't allow spending one-time federal stimulus funds on new programs that would require state dollars to sustain in the future.

"I understand that every government program is created with laudable intent. I understand that people depend on various types of government assistance ... but we're in a hole," he said. "Stop digging."

The House, which is controlled by Democrats, is likely to restore some of the Senate's funding cuts.

Daniel Torisky, for one, hopes so. Otherwise the children he has been trying to help most of his adult life suffer for it, he said.

Mr. Torisky is president of the Autism Society of Pittsburgh and father of a 52-year-old autistic man.

"It's taken 50 years to finally get some programs put in place" such as the Adult Autism Waiver project, which began last year providing job training, crisis intervention, counseling and behavioral guidance to 400 people, Mr. Torisky said. That program now is in jeopardy.

Dairy farmers such as Mr. Coolidge, meanwhile, said they were concerned that cuts to state subsidies would put their family farms out of business.

The ALS Association -- while advocates for people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease -- asked for $800,000 to expand support groups, buy speech communication devices and provide respite care and patient transportation.

Also testifying were representatives of Citizens for the Arts in Pennsylvania, United Cerebral Palsy, the War Veterans Council, the Johnstown Heritage Association, the Lansdale Center for the Performing Arts, the Governor's Advisory Council on African-American Affairs, the York County Community Progress Council and dozens of other organizations that pleaded for a piece of the shrinking pot of state revenue.

"If I get that money for the food bank, I probably have to take it away from" Main Street development programs and arts programs, said state Rep. Doug Reichley, R-Lehigh.

John Brinson, of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, testified that program cuts are the way out of tough economic times.

"It is the right thing to do," he testified. "If you have the courage to say no to the special interests, you will endear yourselves to the people who elected you and who are depending on you to do the right thing."

June 30 is the deadline for adopting a new budget, although the Legislature routinely goes beyond that date.