Cut in Welfare Workers Asked : But Governor Shies Away From Bid to Slow Aid Hikes

In his budget proposal for the coming fiscal year, Gov. George Deukmejian again has asked for significant cuts in the health and welfare bureaucracy but has backed away from his past attempts to slow increases in welfare payments.

In fact, the budget that Deukmejian released Thursday calls for sizable increases in several social programs, including added funding for state mental hospitals and community health programs; larger allocations for in-home care for the elderly, blind and disabled, and a 5% increase in welfare checks.

State Health and Welfare Secretary David Swoap pointed out that the state share of the mammoth $16-billion health and welfare budget would increase more than 8% next year, far more than the 3% Deukmejian asked for last year and well above the rise in the cost of living.

The budget shows, Swoap said, what Deukmejian meant in his State of the State message, when he said: “Let’s climb that peak of excellence, and this time, let’s leave no one behind.”

According to Swoap, the additional money proposed for social programs would come from savings resulting from cutting the 40,000-employee health and welfare bureaucracy by more than 2,700 positions next year. A number of the jobs are held by temporary employees, who will be let go because of the reduction of unemployment claims resulting from the general economic recovery in recent years.

While the Administration was emphasizing its generosity, some critics noted that several of the health and welfare increases were required by existing law, and they complained that other changes could prove damaging to the poor and the disabled.

The welfare payment increase that the Administration is proposing “is required by statute and is not that great an increase,” said Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), who heads the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.

In past years, Swoap and Deukmejian have complained that California’s welfare checks are the highest in the nation. While they have never called for cuts in payment levels, they have asked the Legislature to put an end to automatic cost-of-living increases.

“He knows we’ve already decided (to stand by the required payment increases),” Watson said. “He’s looking ahead two years, when he will run for reelection. . . . He knows he needs Democrats to maintain the picture of harmony.”

The budget also calls for expanding a program begun this year that requires Medi-Cal recipients to make payments from their own pockets in order to receive health care. The Administration also wants to combine several state-run health-care programs and turn over their administration to the counties, thereby allowing cuts in the state’s work force.

Both the plans drew immediate fire from Assemblyman Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles), who is chairman of the Joint Committee on Medi-Cal Oversight.

‘Comfortable Surplus’

The changes would mean “a devastating blow to the quality of health care available to the poor people of California,” Margolin said. “Because it is proposed at a time when we have a comfortable surplus, it is morally indefensible.”

He complained that many of the counties are already trying to discourage the poor, the elderly, the blind and disabled from making use of county health services. Margolin said he was now drafting legislation to tighten county accountability.

The Administration’s attempt to loosen state controls over the health programs “would have extremely tough going,” he predicted.

However, other Democrats were not as critical of the Republican governor. Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara), chairman of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, generally praised Deukmejian’s proposals for funding social programs, as well as education.

“His concern in these areas has been somewhat suspect over the past couple of years--we’ve really had to push him--so the attention to social programs and education in this budget is rewarding,” Vasconcellos said.

Deukmejian’s budget proposes continuing a multi-year program to improve care for the mentally ill. By 1987, the Administration hopes to win full accreditation for the state’s mental hospitals by adding staff and improving facilities. The governor is also calling for added money to care for the mentally ill in their own communities.

The budget also increases state money for child-abuse prevention and for home-delivered meals for the elderly.