THE GOVERNOR’S BUDGET PROPOSAL : Lower Benefits Linked to Shift in Philosophy : Welfare: Governor says recipients, mostly single mothers, don’t have enough incentive to get off programs. Critics believe the ranks of the homeless will swell.

Gov. Pete Wilson, the first chief executive in recent history to propose direct cuts in welfare payments, said Thursday the move was an attempt to force government to make major changes in its philosophy for dealing with welfare.

The cuts would amount to about 9% less in benefits paid mainly to single mothers in the category called Aid to Families With Dependent Children, by far the largest welfare program in the state.

In off-the-cuff remarks at a news conference as well as in his more formal State of the State Address to the Legislature Wednesday, the new Republican governor said direct payments to adults who are capable of working did not give them enough incentive to get off welfare.

He said these payments should be replaced as much as possible by services that still would ensure that children had proper health care, enough food and sufficient education, but would discourage their parents and guardians from making welfare a “permanent lifestyle.”

“We are convinced . . . that we ought to move more toward providing services than cash,” he said.

While proposing the 9% reduction in AFDC, Wilson recommended a $20 boost in monthly food stamp payments, a $7-million residential drug treatment program for pregnant drug addicts and a $50-million state contribution to the federal Head Start program for pre-schoolers from poor families.

For the average welfare recipient--a young mother with two children--Wilson’s proposal would mean a $61 drop in monthly AFDC benefits, from $694 to $633. In California approximately 2 million families receive AFDC payments and that number is expected to rise to 2.2 million next year. The payments are in addition to health care benefits and food stamps.

While Wilson insisted that the welfare cuts would be offset substantially by the proposed increase in food stamps and the addition of new services, welfare rights groups and some lawmakers predicted that their effect on poor women and their children would be devastating.

Kevin Aslanian, executive director of the Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations, said housing costs are so high in urban areas that poor mothers use most of their welfare income for rent. For many already living in the cheapest possible housing, he said, the cut in welfare will mean they will be unable to pay rent and ultimately may face eviction.

“We’re forcing more and more people into the streets,” said state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles). “It doesn’t make good sense. I think the governor is acting on information provided to him by the former Administration and what they have failed to understand is the nature of the welfare community.”

Watson said Wilson’s proposal was made even more painful by his call to eliminate the AFDC-Homeless Assistance Program. The program, created by the Legislature in February, 1988, provides payments of about $30 a day to homeless families seeking housing. Families can receive the payments for up to four weeks.

Wilson said he wants to abolish the program because a recent auditor general’s report showed it was subject to widespread abuse. He said the report indicated there was no effective way of determining whether the families receiving the benefits were actually entitled to them.

Both Watson and Assemblyman Tom Bates (D-Oakland) said the governor’s budget ecommendations were inconsistent in some respects with his new welfare philosophy. While Wilson spoke of encouraging people to get off welfare, Bates said, the governor proposed cutting the one program designed to do that.

Wilson asked for a $3.5-million cut in the $90-million Greater Avenue for Independence (GAIN) program which provides education, training and employment counseling to welfare recipients.

“This was exactly the program that was supposed to help welfare recipients get off welfare,” said Bates. “We can’t have it both ways.”