Bush’s Budget Slashes Funds for Immigrants, Refugees : Spending: In a blow to the state, he proposes far less than Congress approved. Support for transit also is cut.

President Bush on Wednesday proposed cutting $1 billion from health and education programs approved by Congress to help refugees and newly legalized immigrants.

The recommendation is a blow to California and to Gov. Pete Wilson, who has blamed the state’s economic troubles partly on the cost of immigrant services and lobbied the Bush Administration for more funds.

The $300 million Bush proposed for newly legalized immigrants under the amnesty program is “a mere pittance in relation to what is needed,” said Rep. Robert Matsui (D-Sacramento). Bush also proposed $227 million for refugee programs, about $200 million less than state officials had hoped for.

Wilson’s spokesman, Jim Lee, said, “Obviously we are happy we are getting something, whereas in the past two years we didn’t get anything. We’ll take what we can get and we’ll work to get the full amount.”

The proposed reduction appeared to contradict Bush’s vow to Congress Tuesday night during his State of the Union address not to require states and counties to carry out federal programs without providing the necessary funds.

“These budget numbers underscore a serious frustration,” said Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica). “The president said a lot of the right things during his speech, but the fine print runs completely counter to the headlines.”

Bush’s budget also calls for spending $2.2 billion less on urban mass transit during the next fiscal year than the $5.2 billion authorized by Congress last year. Department of Transportation officials blamed the difference on the Administration’s resistance to using federal funds for metropolitan bus and rail systems.

Officials in Los Angeles and other cities have insisted that they need the subsidies to avoid raising fares and losing riders. Congress has repeatedly ignored the Administration view and allowed big cities to use federal money to help run their transit systems.

The Administration will not announce its request for Metro Rail funding for the 1993 fiscal year for another few weeks, said Roland J. Mross, deputy administrator of the Federal Transit Administration. Congress has authorized spending $695 million on the Los Angeles County project over the next five years.

Further spending reductions announced Wednesday by the Defense Department could throw more than 200,000 workers out of jobs over the next five years, analysts said.

But those cuts aside, said Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.), “we do very, very well. Many issues that are important to California are addressed, admittedly some of them not to the degree I would like.”

The Administration recommended $143 million for the Stanford Linear Accelerator, despite an initial recommendation of steep cuts by the Department of Energy, according to California Republicans. The funding keeps alive hopes to construct the “B-factory,” the next stage for high energy physics research in California.

The largest funding request for California water projects was more than $90 million for the Santa Ana River flood control program. The project, which eventually will cost $1.5 billion, is intended to safeguard 3,000 lives and $11 billion in property in Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

The White House also proposed spending $14 million for acquisition of property for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The $14 million for the Santa Monicas is 17% of the total for parkland acquisition nationwide and the same sum that Congress approved in the current budget.

“It’s encouraging and gratifying that the president is again supporting our efforts with the Santa Monicas and is asking for what, for him, is quite a decent amount of money,” said Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles), the park’s leading congressional advocate. “It’s certainly an about-face from the Reagan years.”

The biggest concern posed by the Bush budget for California was the proposed reduction in funds for immigrant and refugee assistance programs.

For newly legalized immigrants, Bush proposed spending $300 million--far less than the $1.1 billion sought by Wilson, Seymour and the state’s congressional delegation.

Congress had approved $4 billion to finance immigrant services as part of a landmark immigration reform bill in 1986, but began pouring the money into other programs. The Administration had planned to provide no funding, as it did last year, before being lobbied by Wilson and Seymour.

Asked if the $300-million figure is sufficient for California, Seymour said “absolutely not.” He added: “But what this does is give us a beginning. Last year it was zeroed out. Now our job will be to get that number close to or at $1.1 billion.”

Democrats were not so optimistic.

“California and the rest of the nation again get cheated. . . ,” said Sen. Alan Cranston. “The federal government owes the states $1.1 billion for outlays over several years, including $450 million for California.”

For the refugees who entered the country from Southeast Asia and other countries since 1985, the President’s budget reduces funding for services from $410 million to $227 million. The biggest impact will be felt in cash and medical assistance, which was reduced from $234 million to $50 million. California has 184,000 such refugees.

In passing the Refugee Act of 1980, Congress agreed to cover the first 36 months of cash and medical assistance, social services, employment and training provided to refugees by states and local government. The services now expire after eight months and are in further jeopardy with the proposed cuts, said Walter Barnes, chief of the refugee and immigration programs branch for the California Department of Social Services.

These cuts, he said, “pretty much eliminate the refugee cash and medical assistance program, which means these refugees would end up on county general assistance programs at 100% county cost.”

Times staff writers Robert Stewart, Alan C. Miller and James Bornemeier contributed to this article.