Medi-Cal, education hit hardest

Alicia Robinson

While local Republican legislators praised Gov. Arnold

Schwarzenegger’s $99.1-billion budget plan on Friday, it drew fire

from others who said it will cut funding from those who can least

afford it.

The state’s biggest expenditures are for public education, which

will get $30.3 billion, or 39.9% of the total funding; health and

human services, which will receive $24.6 billion, or 32.3%; and

higher education, which will get $8.7 billion, or 11.4% of the

funding.

The budget includes shifting $1.3 billion in property taxes from

local governments to the state, an $880-million cut to Medi-Cal and

UC system tuition increases of 10% for undergraduates and 40% for

graduate students. Labor and workforce development will sustain $27

billion in cuts, and environmental protection funding will be cut by

$21 billion.

“The problem we have is there’s just not any money, so you face

the option of increasing taxes or making unpleasant cuts,”

Assemblyman Ken Maddox said. “No one has ever taxed their way out of

a recession.”

Maddox said he likes the plan, in part because it doesn’t raise

taxes, something the governor has repeatedly vowed not to do.

But UC Irvine political science professor Mark Petracca said he

finds it hard to reconcile the proposed budget with promises

Schwarzenegger made Tuesday in the State of the State address -- such

as that he wouldn’t raise college tuition more than 10% a year.

The governor on Friday repeatedly mentioned the need to be

“creative” with saving money and making cuts within departments.

“There’s nothing particularly innovative about a budget which finds

extra money by cutting programs for those in our society who are the

neediest and the least powerful,” he said.

Much budget talk has centered on the $14-billion deficit expected

in this budget, and the governor on Friday noted the $22 billion in

“inherited debt” the state already bears. The proposed budget will

get the state out of debt in two years, Maddox said.

Despite all the concern over funding cuts, the overall spending in

the budget is close to last year’s total, Assemblyman John Campbell

said.

In many cases, the budget just eliminates projected funding

increases, he said.

“The spending lobby would like to see state spending increase

every single year forever, and when it doesn’t, they will scream that

the sky is falling,” Campbell said. “The sky is not going to fall

with this budget.”

A budget summary from the governor’s office showed the current

year’s general fund budget at $78 billion, compared with $76 billion

in general fund spending this year.

The budget proposal is only preliminary and will be revised in

May.

Maddox said he’s concerned about the cuts that local governments

will sustain, but during the revision process, legislators will look

for other areas that can be cut to make local governments whole.

“I don’t think your average person in the state is going to be

negatively impacted by this budget,” Maddox said. “There’s going to

be select groups, some with merit and some without, that’ll find

fault with it.”

Orange County Democratic Party Chairman Frank Barbaro said people

will be affected by the cuts to medical funding, which could result

in greater costs to the state in the future.

Trimming preventive medicine for the needy -- prenatal care, for

example -- could leave the state covering medical services an

unhealthy baby’s lifetime, he said.

“I’m frankly quite worried. ... Cuts now often times result in

catastrophic expense later,” Barbaro said.

Because of Orange County’s bankruptcy in 1994, Petracca said the

county has already been making cuts to social services, so it’s a

double hit for some.

While tax increases have been dirty words to Republicans, Barbaro

said he doesn’t see the problem with small increases. But he expects

others to take a different attitude.

“In the immortal words of Marie Antoinette, ‘Let them eat cake,’”

he said.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.