"The governor's cuts are penny-wise and pound foolish," said Paul J. Lanzikos, executive director of North Shore Elder Services, an agency that serves more than 1,500 elders each day in Danvers, Marblehead, Middleton, Peabody, and Salem.

Lanzikos said he was particularly troubled by the governor's actions because the cuts mean hundreds of local seniors will lose their home-care services, even though Romney signed into law in August a landmark measure that made it possible for low-income seniors and disabled individuals to get state-funded care at home.

"If you cut community-based care, you push more people into nursing facilities, which cost twice as much or more," Lanzikos said. "If the governor is worried about cost-effective spending, he got it completely wrong."

Mass Home Care officials predicted that Romney's cuts, announced on Nov. 10, would compromise programs that help elders, such as protective services for seniors who have reported being abused and meals-on-wheels programs for homebound elders.

Overall, Romney's cuts reduced statewide spending on elder services by $17.5 million, including almost $1 million in direct cuts to programs in Boston's northern suburbs, Lanzikos said.

And the seniors will not be the only ones to suffer as a result of the cuts, lawmakers said. Throughout the region, residents who rely on the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority for drinking water will be forced to pay more.

Using his so-called 9C authority to deal with emergency fiscal problems, Romney slashed 455 budget items, cutting state spending by $425 million, or 1.7 percent of the budget, to deal with what he called a spending crisis prompted by the Legislature. The spending cuts include $28 million in salary increases for human services workers across the state and $25 million that had been earmarked to reduce water and sewer rates.

State Senator Jarrett T. Barrios, a Cambridge Democrat whose district includes portions of Chelsea, Everett, Revere, Saugus, and Somerville, denounced Romney's actions, calling them politically motivated.

"My phone has been ringing off the hook," Barrios said. "People are mad, and they have a right to be mad. They just paid their water bill, and now they're going to be getting another one because the rates have to be readjusted -- all so Romney can court voters in other states and show them he's fiscally conservative."

Romney's spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, has brushed off criticism from the Democrats, calling it an "entirely predictable" reaction from "the overspenders in the Legislature" who tapped the state's rainy-day fund to cover what Romney called "pork" projects.

The changes to the water rates will affect consumers in 13 local communities: Chelsea, Everett, Lynn, Lynnfield, Malden, Marblehead, Melrose, Nahant, Revere, Saugus, Swampscott, Wakefield, and Winthrop.

Several local communities sustained individual losses as well. Chelsea lost funding for workforce training programs, its annual Latin festival, and Theater Zone. Lynn lost $5.2 million for its new Manning Field. And in Haverhill, city officials are grappling with the elimination of almost $2.7 million in Hale Hospital debt relief and $1 million for renovation of Haverhill Stadium.

"To make the cuts that would be required in order to make up that lost money would be impossible," said Ted Van Nahl, chief of staff to Haverhill's mayor, James J. Fiorentini. "We would be laying off large numbers of teachers, firefighters, and police officers. It's just not something that can be done. We've put the stadium project on hold, and we're draining our [$3 million] reserve account and hoping that the governor-elect will be mindful of the city's needs to replenish it."

Romney also cut $380,114 from North Shore Community College and more than $1.4 million from Salem State College, including $800,000 for the school's nursing program. Legislators criticized Romney for cutting money from training programs for nurses, at a time when the state has a nursing shortage.

"On the one hand, Romney talks about bringing back jobs to Massachusetts; on the other hand, he takes away funding from higher education and eliminates money for training programs that would produce more registered nurses," said the Senate majority leader, Frederick E. Berry, a Peabody Democrat. "The governor's [emergency fiscal] powers are supposed to be exercised in times of fiscal crisis; there's no need to make these cuts now."

Youth programs at the Lynn and Saugus YMCAs also were cut by $40,000, which will affect a recreation program for teenagers held in Saugus several times each month. That program often includes speakers, middle-school dances, and athletic games, according to Bruce MacDonald, chief executive officer of the Greater Lynn YMCA.

"To have this happen part way through the fiscal year -- it's a killer," said MacDonald, who oversees facilities in Lynn, Peabody, and Saugus that serve 15,000 children each year. "We already had our program planned out for the year, and now it looks like we're going to have to scale it back a bit. We're scrambling to figure out what our options are, whether there's any chance of finding another funding source."

Lawmakers said they have little hope of restoring the funding while Romney is in office. They are hoping G overnor-elect Deval L. Patrick will reverse the cuts after he takes office in January.

Patrick, however, has not made any promises to reverse Romney's actions.

Although the incoming governor has suggested that he may not go along with Romney's cuts, he made it clear that he plans to review the budget he inherits -- and the cuts Romney made -- as he balances the state's spending plan.

A statement e- mailed to the press by Patrick's staff said the governor-elect "does not believe that significant depletion of the rainy-day fund is fiscally responsible, and [he] will review cuts, where necessary and prudent, to balance the budget."

If firm reassurances from Patrick are not forthcoming, the Northeast Legislative Caucus is likely to meet in the coming weeks to discuss Romney's cuts and determine whether funding can be restored, said Frank Valeri, chief of staff to Democratic state Senator Thomas F. McGee of Lynn, who cochairs the caucus with Senator Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester Republican. If Patrick does not tackle the issue, the Legislature may decide to address the matter when it reconvenes in January, said Barrios, who serves on the regional caucus.