BATON ROUGE (AP) — Louisiana state senators suggested Friday that they’ll restore some money stripped by House Republicans from next year’s more than $25 billion operating budget and seek to lessen cuts to colleges and health programs.

Members of the Senate Finance Committee told higher education and health care leaders they don’t support the spending recommendations backed by the House for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

“I’m sure I’m going to vote not to let these cuts stay in,” Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin, told college officials who predicted devastating closures, program eliminations and widespread layoffs.

Committee members echoed Allain’s sentiments during a daylong hearing Friday about the impact the House-supported cuts would have.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Jack Donahue didn’t say whether he thought the full $268 million in one-time patchwork financing removed by the House will be put back by the Senate.

But he said he doesn’t support the House approach that would give the Jindal administration wide latitude on where to cut. Donahue said if lawmakers want to make reductions, they should spell out where to shave spending.

“If there’s cutting that needs to be done in the state, I think the Legislature should decide those cuts,” said Donahue, R-Mandeville.

Conservative House Republicans successfully stripped the one-time money from next year’s budget bill, arguing it was irresponsible to spend cash that is uncertain to appear year after year on continuing programs and services.

They also said they thought the dollars could be trimmed from wasteful spending, unnecessary contracting, vacant positions and overtime pay.

Gov. Bobby Jindal’s top budget adviser, Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater, disagreed, saying the slashing would fall heavily on public colleges, the LSU-run public hospital system that takes care of the uninsured and the Medicaid program for the poor, disabled and elderly.

College chancellors, the state’s health care chief, community hospital officials and others slated to take hits under Rainwater’s scenario have spent days describing the likely effects to the Senate Finance Committee.

They outlined devastating cuts that could shutter care for cancer patients, eliminate mental health services, close medical training programs and push university campuses to financial emergency.

“If this holds, you will see a generational change,” said LSU Chancellor Mike Martin. “You will set back the state’s flagship institution at least two decades, and it may never recover.”

Charles Castille, with the Louisiana Rural Hospital Coalition, said some small community hospitals in areas that are already underserved wouldn’t survive the cuts.

Senators asked Fred Cerise, LSU’s vice president for health affairs, how patients would get the health services that the university hospitals would eliminate, like oncology treatment, psychiatric units and a diabetes clinic.

“Where will they go? I don’t know. A lot of this care just won’t get done,” Cerise replied.

Sen. Fred Mills, R-Breaux Bridge, said that would force further rationing of patient care at facilities that already have lengthy wait times for the poor and uninsured, if they see them at all for primary care services.

“This whole list goes away if we restore the funding, right? That’s all I needed to know,” Mills told Cerise.

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Next year’s budget is filed as House Bill 1 and can be found at www.legis.la.gov