BUSH BUDGET PRIORITIES : People Programs Would Get Less Than Campaign Rhetoric Promised : More Parks, Education Spending Sought

True to his pledge to seek “a kinder, gentler nation,” President Bush has sent Congress a budget that would increase federal spending for an array of educational, environmental and other people programs.

But when it comes to putting money where the rhetoric is, the new budget offers substantially less than the candidate suggested he favored during the fall campaign.

During the campaign, for example, Bush praised the Head Start program, which provides early schooling for children from low-income families. He indicated then a desire to guarantee every impoverished child an opportunity to enroll.

But doing so would require an extra $4.8 billion. Instead, Bush proposes to appropriate only an extra $250 million and to actually spend only a little more than half of that in the new fiscal year that begins Oct 1.

The effect would be to allow slightly more than a quarter of needy 4-year-olds to participate in Head Start, up from roughly one-fifth currently. That increase is only $12 million more than the increase that President Ronald Reagan already had requested.

Rhetorical Support

The Bush budget claims dozens of other new initiatives, but some contain only rhetorical support, not new money. For example, in fiscal year 1990, Bush plans to increase spending on AIDS by 24% over the level being spent this year. Reagan already had proposed the same 24% increase.

Bush is “not doing all that he would like to do as quickly as he’d like to, but he is making a very credible start in that direction,” said Budget Director Richard G. Darman. “Is it as kind and gentle as everybody would like it to be immediately? I think probably not,” he added.

Others were more bluntly critical. “Voodoo mathematics,” scoffed Rep. Gus Savage (D-Ill.).

While expensive social programs get little new money from Bush’s budget, the President is proposing some major policy initiatives for the environment.

In a significant reversal of a Reagan Administration policy, Bush has proposed a major increase in spending for new parks, singling out in particular the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation area as a “top priority.”

“The Administration is particularly committed to the development and expansion of existing national parks in and near urban areas,” according to the budget papers released Thursday by the White House. “Parks that will be enjoyed by people should be our top priority.”

The Reagan Administration annually tried to cut funds significantly for new parks in general and urban parks in particular, believing them to be a low-priority item. Overall, Bush plans to spend $824 million over the next four years to buy new park land. Reagan had wanted to spend only $96 million in the same period.

The new budget documents do not specify how much of that increased money would go to purchase land in the Santa Monica Mountains, for which Reagan had wanted to spend nothing but for which Congress appropriated $11 million in the current federal budget.

In addition, as The Times previously reported, Bush pledged to postpone indefinitely oil drilling off much of the California coast pending a report from a new interagency task force that he will appoint. Bush did, however, stick with Reagan’s plan to open the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, a decision that environmentalists have pledged to fight.

‘Clean Coal’ Project

Bush’s budget offers support but no additional money for a major “clean coal” project designed to reduce acid rain. Bush plans to ask Congress to roughly double the appropriation for the project in fiscal year 1990 but will reduce the appropriations in later years, ending up with no more money overall than Reagan already had planned to spend.

In other environmental programs, relating to clean air, wetlands preservation, global warming and ocean dumping, Bush pledged new initiatives but left vague what those initiatives would be.

He repeated a campaign pledge to call an international conference on global environmental issues and said he would issue an executive order on actions the federal government could take to reduce the threat of global warming, but did not specify what the order would say.

Bush’s budget provided modest increases in child care and other domestic programs. During the campaign, Bush unveiled a $2.2-billion child-care program that featured a new $1,000-a-child child-care tax credit that was estimated to cost $1.5 billion.

Bush is still proposing the new tax credit but is accounting for only a fraction of the costs in the 1990 budget, apparently assuming that the measure would not be enacted until late in the year. The Administration estimates the cost at only $187 million in fiscal 1990, but concedes that by 1993, the cost would rise to nearly $2.5 billion.

Others Items Left Out

Other segments of Bush’s campaign plan, such as $250 million in grants to develop child-care options, were left out of the budget altogether.

The tax credit, according to Bush Administration projections, would be equal to 14% of a family’s wages up to a maximum of $1,000 per child. During the first year it would be fully available only to those earning less than $8,000 and partially available to families earning up to $13,000. By 1994 the cap would rise, allowing families with incomes up to $20,000 to benefit.

The credit would be refundable, meaning that families with income so low that the credit is greater than the taxes they owe would receive money back from the government.

Bush also made initial moves toward two other campaign promises: expanding benefits for those who adopt children and increasing Medicaid coverage for pregnant women and children.

While in the campaign he had advocated a tax break on non-recurring adoption costs for all adoptive parents, Bush on Thursday unveiled a reimbursement of up to $3,000 for those adopting “special needs” children, rather than all adoptees.

According to the budget, the deduction would cost the government $500,000 in lost income. Bush also advocated a $17-million increase over 1989 levels for a variety of federally funded adoption assistance programs.

Medicaid Extension Dropped

Similarly, during the campaign Bush had advocated extending the $38-billion Medicaid program--the government health-care program for the poor--to cover pregnant women and infants in families with incomes up to 185% of the poverty level. That plan was dropped entirely, although Bush would restore cuts that Reagan had proposed making in Medicaid, including an unpopular proposal that was intended to force states to hold down Medicaid costs.

In attacking the national homelessness problem, Bush pledged $644 million in relief, largely through an existing law he endorsed during the campaign, the McKinney Act, that provides food, shelter and medical care and supplements local mental health clinics serving the homeless. Bush provides all the funds authorized under the law--$165 million more than Reagan had planned.

In addition to funds provided under the McKinney Act, Bush is also proposing up to 70 urban “enterprise zones,” in which special tax reductions would be designed to bring new jobs to impoverished urban areas. He also plans to set aside $50 million to help spur private initiatives to aid the homeless.

Education Proposals

Helping spur private initiatives is also the major focus of Bush’s proposals in education, most of which involve sponsoring award programs to hail those who excel. For example, Bush is asking for $250 million to reward schools that show “substantial educational progress,” $8 million for awards of $5,000 each to excellent teachers and $5 million for scholarships of $10,000 per year to outstanding science students.

Bush also proposes to spend $100 million to help local school districts set up “magnet schools” featuring special programs designed to attract students from a wide area. Localities would have to pay for the schools after they were established. The budget also calls for $25 million to help states find new ways to design nontraditional certification programs to attract new teachers.

He also would provide $60 million over the next four years to aid traditionally black colleges and universities.

BUDGET AT A GLANCE

Fiscal year 1989, currently underway, ends in September. President Reagan prepared a budget for 1990 before leaving office.

1989 1990 Reagan Bush Outlay (in billions) $1,142 $1,152 $1,157 Revenue 979 1,059 1,066 Deficit 163 93 91