Welfare Recipients Losers in Governor’s New Budget : $47-Billion Fiscal Plan Unveiled

Gov. George Deukmejian today unveiled a $47.75-billion state budget that denies cost-of-living increases to welfare recipients while boosting spending on prisons by 12.8% and schools by 8%.

Deukmejian conceded in a written statement that the budget bill “does not adequately provide for all state government services despite the vigorous health of California’s economy.” He put most of the blame on Proposition 98, an initiative approved by voters two months ago which mandates that all state revenues in excess of the so-called “Gann limit” cap must go to schools.

The Republican governor said in a speech today that both Proposition 98 and the 10-year-old Gann limit should be reviewed and possibly repealed because of the unrealistic restraints they have put on budgeting.

“I don’t wish to have to make any of these reductions,” Deukmejian said of his health, welfare and other cuts during a breakfast speech to the Sacramento Comstock Club. “But if the Legislature doesn’t support such actions, I fear that the alternative will be much worse.”

Deukmejian said that an alternative would include staff cutbacks at state mental hospitals, a $200-million cut in local mental health services and reduced funding for alcohol and drug treatment programs, Alzheimers research and senior nutrition programs.

The 1,355-page spending plan which the Republican governor formally submitted to the Democratic-controlled Legislature this morning proposes a total of $47.753 billion in state spending for the next fiscal year, up 5.9% from the current level.

The budget act also distributes to state agencies and local governments throughout California an additional $18.48 billion in federal funds, for a total spending package of $66.239 billion, an overall 5.1% increase.

On a percentage basis, prisons, which have doubled in inmate population during Deukmejian’s governorship, would get the biggest increase among major state programs, up by $210 million, to $1.86 billion.

But in total dollars, by far the biggest increase in the spending bill is the budgeted $1.171 billion hike in the state support budget for schools, to $18.86 billion.

Community colleges would get a 7.2% increase, to $2.42 billion in state aid; state colleges would increase by 8.4%, to $2.02 billion, and the University of California by 4.7%, to $2.50 billion.

In addition to the welfare grant freeze--which cannot be imposed without a majority vote of the Legislature to waive automatic cost-of-living adjustments in current law--Deukmejian also proposed a freeze on funding for in-home supportive services and cuts in some locally administered programs.

The proposed state transportation budget, including all highway construction and maintenance and mass transit subsidies, is $3.31 billion, down $101 million from the current year.

Deukmejian’s proposed overall increase in state spending on welfare, Medi-Cal and other health programs is only $42 million, or 0.4% of the $11.6-billion state health and welfare budget.

The health and welfare budget also includes $103 million to fight AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome), an allocation Deukmejian described as “more than any other state.”