BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS

Gov. George Deukmejian on Wednesday proposed a $53.7-billion state budget for 1990-1991. Some details:

BOTTOM LINE

The proposed budget is 7.3% larger than the current year’s spending plan, but still will fall short of funding all state services at their current levels. No general tax increases are proposed, but the budget includes fee increases for students attending University of California and California State University campuses. The largest budget increases are in corrections, up 14.4% to fund new prison construction and operation, and in education, where spending would climb 8% for kindergarten through 12th grade.

RESERVES

This year’s budget began with a $1.1-billion reserve, which is expected to dwindle to about $512 million by the end of the fiscal year on June 30. The proposal for next year would rebuild the reserve to $1.2 billion, with $210 million of that set aside for schools.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Under Proposition 98, approved by the voters in 1988, schools are guaranteed 40.9% of the state’s general fund budget. In 1990-1991, spending for kindergarten through grade 12 would increase 8% to $17.8 billion. But after accounting for enrollment increases and inflation, state and local spending per pupil in elementary and secondary schools actually would drop $19 to $3,968. Community colleges would get $1.8 billion, an increase of 7.6%.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

Spending on the University of California is to grow 5.1% to $2.7 billion. Full-time enrollment is projected to climb by 1,188 to 154,000. Annual student fees would increase 4.7%, or $69, to $1,545. Faculty salaries would increase by 4.8% on Jan. 1, 1991.

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITIES

Spending at the 20-campus California State University system would climb 5.1% to $2.1 billion. Enrollment is expected to grow 2.7% to 274,000. Fees would go up 4.8%, or $36, to $744 a year. Faculty salaries would increase 4.9%. The budget provides $8.3 million for the first full year of operation at CSU San Marcos, which will open with 250 students.

HEALTH

Spending for health and welfare programs is expected to increase by 3.4% to $13.4 billion, more than $1 billion less than it would cost to keep programs at their current levels. The governor proposed cutting $150 million from payments to counties for medical care for the poor and deferring payment of another $25 million. Medi-Cal eligibility standards would be frozen at current income levels, ignoring inflation, and some Medi-Cal services would be eliminated, including heroin detoxification. Spending on programs to fight the spread of AIDS would be frozen at $130.5 million.

WELFARE

Despite an apparently robust economy, the number of applicants for welfare is climbing at a rate much higher than the growth in population. The governor proposes to respond by cutting workfare--the program that gives welfare recipients education, training and jobs, by $91 million, or about 20%. The budget also would eliminate cost-of-living increases for recipients of Aid to Families With Dependent Children and aid to the aged, blind and disabled. And the budget reduces by $71 million the funds for in-home services meant to keep the elderly out of nursing homes.

TRANSPORTATION

The budget provides two scenarios for transportation. Under one, which assumes that voters reject a gasoline tax increase on the June ballot, Caltrans would have to cut $533 million. Of that, $65 million would be cut by deferring highway construction projects for a year. Another $104 million would be eliminated from mass transit programs, including $52 million for Los Angeles Metro Rail. If the voters approve the tax increase, however, transportation spending would climb by about $1.1 billion in 1990-91 and highway and transit construction would be expanded.

PUBLIC SAFETY

The corrections budget would increase 14.4% to $2.3 billion, paying to house an additional 11,370 new inmates. The California Youth Authority would get a 5.4% increase to $432 million. The Highway Patrol would receive an additional 150 officers at a cost of $9.8 million and new semiautomatic handguns for $1.3 million.

ENVIRONMENT

Spending for environmental programs is projected to be about $2.1 billion, with solid waste programs getting a boost and efforts to fight water pollution sustaining a cut because of reductions in federal funds and bond money. Spending on coastal protection, air pollution and toxic waste would be stable. The budget includes $10.5 million to replace Department of Forestry airplanes used to fight fires.

EARTHQUAKE

The Oct. 17 Bay Area earthquake prompted several changes in state spending. A temporary quarter-cent sales tax increase approved by the Legislature is expected to generate $785 million by the time it expires on Dec. 31, with $435 million of that going into next year’s budget. In addition to already-approved funding for repairing highways and matching federal disaster relief, the Administration proposed spending $15 million to house low-income residents made homeless by the quake, $250 million from a future bond measure to make state buildings safer and $11 million to expand the Office of Emergency Services, including establishment of a branch emergency response center in Southern California.