Cuts Undermine State Pledge of Help for All

At precisely 1:45 a.m. Wednesday, California state government underwent a historic reversal.

With the stroke of Gov. Pete Wilson’s pen, a state that promised a low-cost college education for every qualified resident, a strong safety net for the poor and better than basic care for the disabled, cut deeply into those guiding principles.

Driven by the most sustained economic recession since World War II, the California budget went down instead of up for the first time in half a century. It requires reductions in welfare benefits for poor women and children; cutbacks in state aid to the aged, blind and disabled; reductions in payments to doctors, clinics and hospitals that care for the needy and to centers that serve the developmentally disabled; curtailment of programs for the young and the elderly, and cuts in higher education.

Now it will be harder to get into and afford state colleges. It will be more difficult for poor families, the elderly and the disabled to subsist on government aid. It will be more inconvenient to obtain licenses, inspections and fulfill other requirements of state government.

“Everybody says, ‘Let’s pass the budget. Everything will be fine if we pass the budget,’ ” Assemblyman Dan Hauser (D-Arcata) said. “Now, we’ve passed the budget and it’s going to be hell out there.”

“This is a year in which we are down-scaling and downsizing everything,” Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) added.

Whether this “down-scaling and downsizing” represents a painful and perhaps temporary effect of the recession or an overdue recognition of the limits of government depends on one’s point of view.

Calling the passage of the budget a “dark moment” in California history, Assemblyman Bruce Bronzan (D-Fresno) said it begins a “new chapter and a new era” where government no longer sees itself as obligated to provide for its poorest citizens.

“We have this terrible recession and the people that we’re hurting the worst are the people at the bottom,” he said.

But Republicans--who scored a major victory in the passage of a budget that reduced government expenditures without major tax increases--saw it otherwise.

“The purpose of government is not to give you a lifestyle but to help you out. We’ve created three generations of people who say, ‘You’ve got to take care of me,’ ” Assemblyman B. T. Collins (R-Carmichael) said. “We’ve finally stood up and said, ‘Folks, we’re out of money.’ ”

To help balance the budget, the governor and Legislature for the first time enacted reductions in services the state provides to the elderly, blind and disabled, a politically powerful group that is seldom targeted for budget-cutting. The state portion of aid to the aged, blind and disabled program was cut by an average 5.8%.

California is one of several states that has elected over the years to supplement the federal program that provides a monthly cash grant to the poor who are elderly, blind or disabled. Even with the new cuts, California’s program is still one of the most generous in the nation, although the cost of living in its urban areas is also among the highest in the nation.

Effective Nov. 1, the cuts will reduce the basic grant to a single aged or disabled person living in Los Angeles from $645 to $610. The grant to the blind will drop from $719 to $679 a month.

Along with the reduction in the so-called SSI/SSP program, the budget also cuts back in-home supportive services, a program that provides housekeeping, meals and in some cases baths for the elderly, blind and disabled who live at home and might otherwise have to be in nursing homes. The cuts will make a 12% reduction in the hours of service that recipients will receive each month.

Eliminated altogether was a state program that provided replacement clothing and household furnishings for the aged, blind and disabled who become victims of a natural catastrophe such as an earthquake or a fire.

For the second consecutive year, poor families--primarily mothers and children--helped by the Aid to Families With Dependent Children program will see a substantial cut in their monthly cash benefits. Beginning Oct. 1, the grants will be cut an average 4.5% to be followed--pending federal approval--by an additional cut of 1.3% about a month later. The two cuts combined will reduce the grant for a mother and two children living in Los Angeles from $663 to $627. It will be offset slightly by an increase in food stamps.

Last year, cash grants for welfare recipients were cut by 4.4%.

“This whole budget is very painful,” Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) said. “It’s a terrible hit particularly to AFDC recipients.”

In designing the budget cuts, Wilson and the Legislature also sent out the message that California no longer is a beacon for the poor from other states and other countries.

Incorporated in the spending plan was a provision that says poor people who move to the state and quickly seek welfare will not be paid at the same rate as other recipients until they have lived here one year. Instead they will be paid at the rate in their previous state of residence--unless those rates are higher than California’s.

Medi-Cal escaped without many of the deep cuts requested by Wilson, although the Legislature made a 9.5% reduction in the amount that it will pay surgeons, anesthesiologists and radiologists who care for the poor. Physicians who opposed the cuts said they feared that many doctors would stop treating the poor because even before the cuts, Medi-Cal paid far below the going rate for these services.

As its major cost-saving measure, the budget directed the bureaucracy to move more recipients into managed care programs, such as health maintenance organizations.

College fees were increased substantially to pay for a growing enrollment. At community colleges, the $6-per-unit costs were boosted to $10. Fees at the University of California were increased by $550 a year, Cal State fees went up by $372 a year.

Most of the environmental and natural resources programs did not receive the steep reductions given other programs because they are supported by fees. However, the California Conservation Corps., which provides low-wage jobs to young people 18 to 23, was targeted for major cuts, perhaps as steep as 40%.

Assemblyman Collins, a former director of the corps, said he will urge the Wilson Administration to reconsider the cuts to the corps, which provides essential emergency services during disasters.

A spokesman for the agency said that if the 40% cuts go into effect the corps will have to close seven of its centers and reduce by several hundred the number of young people it hires.

How You Could Be Affected

The state budget, in the tens of billions of dollars, is sometimes hard to grasp, with the talk of multimillion-dollar cuts here and fee increases of a few hundred million there. Here’s a look at what it may mean to you.

If you are:

A community college student, your fees will increase from $6 per unit to $10 per unit. It will be even worse if you are taking recreational classes or if you already have a bachelor’s degree and have returned to school for retraining. In that case, you’ll have to pay $50 per unit.

A UC student, you will pay $550 more a year for your education.

A Cal State student, your fees will increase by $372 a year.

A welfare parent with two children living in a rural county, your maximum monthly cash grant will drop from $663 to $613.

A welfare parent with two children living in Los Angeles, the grant will drop from $663 to $627. A similar family living in Orange County will have its monthly grant reduced to $633. All recipients will get slight increases in food stamps.

A poor family who has moved to California within the last year, you can receive only as much in welfare payments as the state of your previous residence paid--unless that state paid more than California.

An aged and disabled person living in Los Angeles and receiving aid under the so-called SSI/SSP program, your monthly benefits will drop from $645 a month to $610. If you are living in a rural area they will fall to $597. You will, however, be provided a small cost-of-living increase in January by the federal government.

Blind and living in Los Angeles, your benefits under the SSI/SSP will drop from $719 to $679 per month.

Living in Los Angeles and receiving general assistance, there will be no immediate decrease in your benefits but the county Board of Supervisors will be entitled to cut it from $341 a month to about $302.

Elderly and receiving in-home supportive services to help you stay out of a nursing home, the hours you can receive this help will be reduced by 12%. If you can show that the reduction in hours may force you to move out of your home, you can apply to have them restored.

Receiving help from a regional center for the developmentally disabled, you may find fewer services and less staff time available to you.

Age 18 to 23 and seeking a job with the California Conservation Corps, you may be put on a waiting list or find that there are no slots for you.

Receiving Medi-Cal, you may be asked to participate in a managed care system such as a health maintenance organization.