Jean Walker’s 21-year-old son Steven has had seizures on swing sets and in pools. He has thrown himself into fires and snow banks. He speaks 12 words.

In January, five days before Steven was to enter a specialized home, Walker was told her son would not be allowed to enroll on Feb. 1 as planned.

“Once again Steven is turning our lives upside down,” Walker, a Moorhead resident with two other children, said at a town hall meeting Saturday.

“This does not feel like a 4 percent cut to us. This is huge,” she said.

Walker was one of about 70 people who gathered at the Moorhead First Congregational United Church of Christ Saturday morning to talk to legislators about the effects of proposed Minnesota budget cuts.

The meeting was organized by Uniting for Equality, a coalition of 18 area organizations formed to improve the community’s quality of life, said Duke Schempp, director of Fargo-Moorhead’s People Escaping Poverty Project.

“We need to use a collective voice to shift the power to the people,” he said.

Schempp said the ultimate goal of Saturday’s town hall meeting was to develop a relationship with area legislators and put faces on statistics.

In a tear-filled voice, Pam Boj-Rivas of Moorhead told legislators how a drinking problem rendered her homeless for four years. She stopped drinking in 1996 and started working at Churches United for the Homeless.

“I cannot forget the people I have met on my journey,” Boj-Rivas said.

“Please don’t bounce the budget on the backs of” the needy, she said.

“Our bottom line is we cannot cut services to homeless people,” said Diane Wray Williams with the Moorhead Justice Circle.

Brian Arrett of the Moorhead Human Rights Commission, proposed legislators take a three pronged approach to the budget crisis in St. Paul: cutting expenses, shifting around extra money and enhancing revenues primarily through higher income taxes.

Several Moorhead residents attending the meeting said they were willing to pay more taxes to maintain Minnesota’s quality of life.

At one point in the 1½-hour forum, representatives from several local agencies piled a table with letters and signs from people concerned about the cuts.

The three attending legislators, who were seated at the front of the church, said the final budget would likely be a compromise between House and Senate plans.

“The problem this year is for certain people, there’s absolutely no compromise,” said Sen. Keith Langseth.

One of Rep. Paul Marquart’s biggest concerns is that rural Minnesota has the most at stake and the most to lose, he said.

For example, in rural Minnesota the senior citizen population is about 17 percent while the state average is 12 percent, Marquette said.

Cutting back senior programs would thus affect rural areas more than urban ones, he said.

Rep. Morrie Lanning said those who are financially able should pay.

“Every dollar we give to those who have the ability to pay is a dollar taken away from someone in need,” Lanning said.

At the same time, he said people need to keep the big picture in mind.

The health and human services budget has seen an 8 percent increase from the last biennium, Lanning said.

“The bottom line is, we’re listening,” he said. “The messages have gotten through.”

Readers can reach Forum reporter Lisa Schneider at (701) 241-5529