Budget Panel Rejects Shifting Health Programs

A Democrat-controlled conference committee negotiating a final version of a $40-billion-plus state budget Friday rejected Gov. George Deukmejian’s plan to turn $477 million in state health programs over to counties.

Deukmejian had proposed giving counties responsibility for a number of special health programs, along with one-quarter of 1% of state sales tax revenues to pay for them.

The Republican governor viewed the proposal as a way to free up more spending for state operations. It would do that because the money given over to the counties would not count in figuring whether the state is complying with a voter-imposed spending limit.

Stable Fund Source

The governor also contends that his proposal would answer the counties’ plea for a reliable, stable source of funds.

But Democrats resisted the plan, contending that the proposal contains no guarantees that the counties would continue the health programs. Friday’s action by the Assembly-Senate conference committee, which Democrats control 4 to 2, all but killed any chance the governor’s plan has of being incorporated into the budget for the 1987-88 fiscal year that begins July 1.

Assemblyman William P. Baker of Danville, one of the two Republicans on the committee, argued briefly for the proposal. It would have given counties responsibility for a number of so-called “categorical” programs, including preventive medical and family health services, and support for rural and community health programs.

“We ought to begin setting counties loose,” Baker said, arguing that there are legal ways of requiring counties to continue the programs in a manner satisfactory to lawmakers concerned about giving up control over them.

Another Fight Lost

Deukmejian lost another fight when the committee voted to cut the state Department of Corrections budget by $42.4 million, in anticipation of savings from a program being pushed by Democrats that would shave time off the sentences of prisoners guilty of parole violations.

Currently, parole violators, unlike other prisoners, are not given time off their sentences if they participate in prison work programs.

The Democrats propose rewarding parole violators just like other prisoners for their work, making it possible for the violators to qualify for early release. That, the Democrats say, would save the state the cost of housing and guarding the prisoners for their full terms.

Separate legislation is needed before the program can be put in place, and Baker argued unsuccessfully that the committee should not count on the savings until a bill is passed to implement the program.

Trying to Close Gap

Budget conferees, working to come up with a compromise budget to send to Deukmejian by June 15, are attempting to close a $1.3-billion gap that exists between their budget and the lower one proposed by the governor.

The committee, as it plowed through hundreds of individual budget items, delayed action on some of the costliest proposals, including how much of an inflationary increase to grant for education, health and welfare programs.

For example, the Senate has proposed boosting monthly grants to welfare recipients by 3.6%--which is 1% more than than they would get under a version of the budget approved by the Assembly because the lower house used a different inflation index. In dollars, the additional 1% amounts to $65.2 million.

It would cost even more to provide an extra 1% over the scheduled increases for school desegregation programs, child nutrition and other education items. The 1% difference in those programs represents $111 million.

$1-Billion Reserve

A chief goal of the committee is to produce a budget that contains a $1-billion reserve, which is being insisted on by Deukmejian. The $42-billion Senate version of the spending plan, which the committee is using as its base budget, contains no reserve and has a deficit in the range of $330 million.

“We’re working our way to a zero (deficit), and then to a $1-billion reserve. To get there, we have to cut $1.3 billion,” Baker said.