Budget Will Double AIDS Battle Funds, Governor Says

Gov. George Deukmejian said Saturday that his new budget will more than double the amount of state spending to fight AIDS to above the $63 million range.

In his weekly radio address, the governor also said state funding to combat the deadly disease already is more than 900% above the $3 million spent in 1983. The 1986-87 state budget total earmarked to fight AIDS was $31.5 million.

Deukmejian originally proposed spending $44.6 million on AIDS during the new fiscal year.

But the Democratic-controlled Legislature increased this amount by $39 million to $83.6 million in the $41.1-billion 1987-88 budget approved last Wednesday.

“California is united in the conviction that fighting this tragic killer must be one of our highest priorities,” the governor said in his radio address.

“That’s why I can report in our new budget we will more than double the current level of funding for AIDS and provide money to establish a new AIDS clinic at San Francisco General Hospital.”

A Deukmejian press spokesman, Tom Beerman, said $5.7 million will be spent on the clinic in San Francisco, a city that has a high number of AIDS patients and a large gay population.

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) said he was “quite pleased” that Deukmejian will authorize the research clinic.

“We are hopeful he has funded in larger amounts other AIDS programs of treatment and practical information and education,” Brown added.

Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) said he is “happy” that the governor will approve more state money to be spent to fight AIDS.

But Roberti noted that it essentially represented a legislative augmentation to combat what he called “the nation’s No. 1 health problem.”

Over the last five years, Deukmejian said the Legislature several times tried to add even more than the 900% increase to the AIDS budget, which was “more than we could afford or wisely spend.”

When he vetoed these increases, the governor said, “many reports unfairly focused only on what was vetoed and not on the fact that we had increased AIDS spending by over 900%.”

Deukmejian also promised to use his blue pencil to veto items in the new state budget before he signs it this week “to ensure California lives within its means and lives within the law.”

Even after the vetoes, he said the budget will be more than 4% higher than this year and the largest in state history.

“That’s worth remembering,” the governor said, “when you hear the predictable groans from the big spenders once my final budget decisions are announced.”