The Vineyard Family Planning clinic — for now — has been spared deep state budget cuts that threatened the 30-year old clinic with possible closure.

“It is a huge step in the right direction, it’s a big relief,” said Elizabeth Torrant, chief operations officer of Health Imperatives Inc., in a telephone interview Friday morning. Formerly Health Care of Southeastern Massachusetts, the health group manages the Vineyard clinic.

“We are stretched so tight I don’t anticipate ending this year in a balanced budget. We’re trying our best . . . but it’s a huge relief to start the year with this,” Ms. Torrant said.

Massachusetts lawmakers finished the $30.6 billion budget for the coming year just hours before the new fiscal year began on July 1. A senate and house conference committee will recommend a budget to Gov. Deval Patrick that includes $4.65 million in funding for Family Planning statewide, the same as last year. Governor Patrick originally requested a $1 million cut from Family Planning this year, a 22 per cent decrease. The house asked for a reduction of 21 per cent, but in the end the joint committee backed the state senate’s recommendation of level funding. Gov. Patrick can veto any line item from the conference committee’s recommendation.

Ms. Torrant said level funding still means a budget stretched thin, and while closure of the Vineyard clinic is no longer imminent, she could not rule it out in the future either.

“I don’t know, I would love to say this means we definitely aren’t closing clinics but I just don’t know,” she said. “With rising expenses level funding is a cut in a way, everything from administrative expenses to medical supplies. It just gets tighter and tighter.”

The clinic provides confidential reproductive health care services to men and women, including free testing for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases, pap smears, pregnancy tests, vasectomy reimbursements. Fees for all services are offered on a sliding scale.

Ms. Torrant said the health group is expected to sit down today to examine the budget with the state recommendation, and discuss what it will mean for the Vineyard clinic.

“We want to keep up the quality of our services,” she said. “Our mission is not to have a three-month waiting list, especially for the young people we serve.”

The immediate relief is just that — $17 million of Title X funding is already being slashed nationwide. Title X funnels federal money to Family Planning agencies through the state; the health group is expecting a 5.5 per cent cut in Title X funds over six months, or 11 per cent for the year.

In the first six months this would translate to an $80,000 cut for the health group.

President Obama has proposed $317 million for Family Planning funding in the 2012 budget, but the Republican-controlled House wants to cut Title X funding all together.

The Vineyard clinic’s total operating budget is $211,000 this year, down $39,000 from last year, $70,000 of which comes from Title X monies. The state Department of Public Health contributes $42,000 to the clinic’s budget; $90,000 comes from client fees and the remainder is from third-party insurance fees.

Funding for Family Planning been on the chopping block since 2007, and $200,000 has been cut since then. Ms. Torrant said it is a critical time for the agencies struggling to keep their head above water.

“When we lost the $200,000 we had to adjust and we just got back in balance, that’s why the threat of more cuts and the federal cut on top of it is so dangerous,” she said. “I’m anticipating being in a shortfall based on the current budget,” she said, concluding:

“We don’t have bells and whistles to cut so it’s a harder place to start from. It’s great news but we still have a way to go. We have a lot to figure out and analyze. Decisions have to be made, we need to see what’s coming in and what’s going out. How can we provide services less expensively? I don’t know.”