SALEM -- Roughly 300 middle management and public affairs jobs would be eliminated from the state payroll and at least 100 other jobs would disappear with the closure of a minimum security prison under a budget agreement announced Wednesday as the Oregon Legislature opened its 2012 session.

The plan, a bipartisan agreement forged by the Legislature's three top budget writers, emerged on a day that included boisterous protests by Occupy demonstrators and Gov. John Kitzhaber testifying at a hearing to push his plan for reforming schools.

If the agreement holds up, one of the toughest tasks of the abbreviated February session will be nearly over.

"We're just trying to create a leaner operation," Sen. Richard Devlin, D-Tualatin, said about the proposed worker reductions.

Devlin, one of three co-chairmen of the state's main budget-writing committee, said private businesses were quick to shrink their workforces when the recession struck. State government was slower to react, he said.

"We think we have to do something now," he said.