"Many of the folks who are dependent on these programs for survival are going to be hurt," said Bill Powers, vice president of the California Alliance for Retired Americans. "For a governor who came into office saying he was concerned about seniors and children and folks like that, it's a strange way to behave."
Genest said the program would return next year if lawmakers have money to pay for it.
Administration officials noted that the state will continue another program in which the state pays the entire property tax bill of an elderly homeowner until he or she dies, and then recoups the money from the sale of the home or the estate.
For the second year in a row, the governor stripped funding from a program he and Democratic legislators created in 2006 to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for Californians. Schwarzenegger's campaign had trumpeted that law to help him win reelection, but the state has not announced any discounts negotiated with pharmaceutical manufacturers as a result of the law.
"The governor's penny-wise and pound-foolish and mean-spirited cuts add insult to injury," said Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles). The budget she and other lawmakers passed last week "already will hurt middle-class and low-income families struggling in a difficult economy," she said.
Assemblyman Roger Niello (R-Fair Oaks), the senior Republican on the Assembly Budget Committee, praised Schwarzenegger for "signing a budget today that does not raise taxes on working families, which was an important priority for Republicans."
County welfare directors assailed Schwarzenegger's line-item vetoes of $88 million for CalWorks, the state's welfare program, and $11.4 million for adult protective services for efforts to catch elder abuse.
"This is pretty basic math," Frank Mecca, executive director of the County Welfare Directors Assn. of California, said in a statement. "Cuts to programs that help people get to work mean less work and higher welfare payments. Cutting programs that detect and prosecute welfare fraud equals more fraudulent payments out the door."
Schwarzenegger also deleted an $8-million program intended to curb the use of methamphetamine, and $5.4 million for labor studies at University of California campuses. GOP lawmakers have long sought to eliminate the labor programs, headquartered at UCLA and UC Berkeley, which they view as too sympathetic to unions.
After Schwarzenegger's vetoes, the budget spends $103.4 billion from the general fund, the main pool of taxpayer money -- essentially the same as last year.
The current fiscal year began July 1, but disputes between lawmakers about how to erase a $15.2-billion shortfall led to the longest budget stalemate in modern California history.
--
jordan.rau@latimes.com
Times staff writer Nancy Vogel contributed to this report.
