Picking the Pockets of the Aged, Disabled

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said it himself while unveiling his $131-billion revised spending plan: A budget is “much more than just ledger sheets.... A budget is all about values.”

“It’s an expression of who we are,” he continued, “and what we really care about.”

Right. So I won’t be joining the large cheering section for this annual “May revision” of the governor’s proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

Sure, there are some commendable things about it -- mainly that Schwarzenegger was forced by the political realities of running for reelection to finally keep his old promise to provide higher funding for schools. It’s also good that he’s making early payments on the state’s whopping debt.

But this governor’s “values” apparently don’t embrace California’s 1.2 million aged, blind and disabled who are living on the edge, clinging to government benefits for survival. These are the impoverished folks dependent on federal Supplemental Security Income and the State Supplementary Program. For most, it’s their sole source of income.

You wouldn’t know by the administration’s spin that they’re still getting robbed in the governor’s latest budget plan.

One day before the budget unveiling, officials leaked that Schwarzenegger was scuttling his draconian proposal, announced in January, to pocket the fed’s future SSI cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for 15 months, from April 1, 2007, to July 1, 2008. Sacramento would have grabbed the federal funds intended for poor people -- roughly $185 million -- and used it for state budget-balancing.

Yes, it’s legal. An old trick. The state merely reduces its SSP grant to offset the fed’s SSI benefit boost.

But Democratic legislators would have none of Schwarzenegger’s proposed 15-month rip-off. Budget subcommittees in both houses voted down the theft, making moot the governor’s gesture last week of dropping the inexplicable idea.

“We sent him the message loud and clear in January that we were not going along with that,” says Senate Budget Committee Chairman Wes Chesbro (D-Arcata). “And apparently he heard us. Taking money from the poorest of the elderly and disabled at a time when the economy’s improving and revenues are up was inexcusable.”

Exactly. And here’s what also is inexcusable that nobody’s mentioning: The governor and the Legislature, in their budget negotiations last year, agreed to steal the federal SSI COLAs for the first three months of both 2006 and 2007. It’s money the state no longer really needs, if it ever did. But the larceny lingers.

Neither Schwarzenegger in his May revise nor the Legislature has moved to right that wrong.

The COLA already has been confiscated for this year’s first quarter. It amounted to $24 per month for most single recipients, keeping their monthly benefit at $812 until April 1, when it rose to $836.

(Actually, the full story is even worse: The state also canceled its own SSP COLAs for all of 2006 and 2007, costing recipients another $9 a month this year and, accumulatively, roughly double that the next.)

Incongruously, the state still intends to seize the federal COLA in the first quarter of 2007, pocketing an estimated $44 million. That’s chump change these days in Sacramento. Money’s rolling in like snow melting off the Sierra. Tax projections are up $7.5 billion over January estimates.

As Schwarzenegger exclaimed during his budget announcement Friday: “Our revenues are up dramatically ... beyond all forecasts. And this is, of course, great news for California ... a cause of great celebration.”

Too bad the impoverished aged, blind and disabled aren’t allowed in the party.

As things stand, the feds will grant them another monthly boost -- maybe $20 -- starting Jan. 1, but the state will grab it until April 1.

“We shouldn’t expect the aged, blind and disabled to balance the state budget when we have a surplus,” says Michael Herald, a lobbyist for the Western Center on Law and Poverty. “People like me and you aren’t being asked to give a plug nickel.”

John Wilkins, 51, of Fresno, who has muscular dystrophy and lives off SSI-SSP, says: “We’re dealing with rising costs for pretty much anything you can name -- housing, food, utilities, not to mention fuel.... I don’t think this governor has a clue about the daily existence of someone like me.”

Schwarzenegger says he must be “fiscally responsible.” He’s trying to avoid spending what may be a one-time revenue surge for ongoing programs. And he’s right, of course.

But the SSI COLA is not relevant to that laudable principle. The COLA amounts to a one-time -- three-month -- pilfer or payment of $44 million, depending on whether Capitol pols ultimately consult their consciences. The COLA will be given to recipients starting April 1, 2007, regardless. There’ll be no added ongoing spending obligation.

Unfortunately, the main issue for politicians is not the policy, but political tactics. Nobody wants to reopen last year’s budget talks and inject them into current haggling.

“We don’t like to break budget deals,” a senior legislative aide told me. “It opens up a Pandora’s box.... If everybody wanted to join hands and do it, that’d be different.”

Face it, SSI-SSP recipients don’t have the muscle -- the millions in political play money -- that, say, the teachers’ union does. The governor couldn’t wait last week to settle up with schools.

Schwarzenegger ought to rethink his budget values, especially when he’s pouring $2.2 billion into a rainy-day fund. A tiny fraction of that should rightfully go to the aged, blind and disabled who are barely making it. They’re always getting rained on.

George Skelton writes Monday and Thursday. Reach him at george.skelton@latimes.com.