Editors note: Corrected version

United Way of King County last week unveiled plans for allocating its projected $33.5 million budget, placing greater emphasis basic needs like food, housing stability, and access to benefits than it did in the previous cycle.

Among the areas that will see significant reductions are employment, youth, and health programs.

Those cutbacks have more to do with shifting priorities than the economy, according to Jared Erlandson, a spokesman for United Way of King County.

The organization is on target to meet its fundraising goals this cycle, and actually plans to pump more money into the community than it did last year, Erlandson said.

But the change in priorities has some non-profits reeling.

The group AtWork! will see a 25-percent decrease in funding from United Way, an overall reduction that amounts to $68,000 by Fall 2010.

The Issaquah-based organization finds employment for people with disabilities, often giving them jobs within its own enterprises: which include recycling, assembly, and landscaping operations.

AtWork! already took a 50-percent cut in funding from United Way in 2008.

“As the dollars shrink, we have to figure out ways to help the people we serve with less resources,” said Jane Kuechle, chief development officer for the organization.

AtWork! operates with a $3.5 million budget. The organization has relied little on individual-donor contributions in the past, bringing in just $150,000 that way last year.

Kuechle said the group’s enterprises will do little to make up for its funding reduction, particularly with the price of recycled materials going down.

United Way claims the reduction in funding for AtWork! has nothing to do with the organization’s quality of service.

“There are people out there in the non-profit world doing great work, but we don’t have enough money to power what they’re doing,” Erlandson said.

United Way has embarked on a 10-year plan to end homelessness, which is the organization’s top priority according to past funding models.

Joshua Adam Hicks can be reached at 425-453-4290