Federal Aid

Big, beefy Edd Bonnette reared back in a chair in the wood-paneled kitchen of his farmhouse and recalled, with ironic delight, the good old days of the droughts of '77 and '81. "Back then, if you was a farmer in trouble, it seemed the federal government couldn't throw enough money at you," said Bonnette, 51, a third-generation farmer with 1,800 acres here in Orangeburg County. "I got a $315,000 disaster loan in 1977 and another one for $225,000 in 1981.

Ventura County residents incurring fire-related losses may be eligible for federal aid, after President Clinton Thursday declared Ventura County a disaster area. The assistance, to be coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, may include temporary housing for those whose residences are unlivable and low-interest loans to cover uninsured private and business property losses, FEMA officials said.

The federal government is asking 625 people in Texas to pay back a total of $1.26 million in recovery aid they shouldn't have received after Hurricane Rita. Most of the money FEMA wants -- $1.14 million -- was incorrectly paid for damage to homes that were not the owners' primary residences, an agency spokeswoman said. Damage to secondary residences are ineligible for FEMA money.

With a swiftness not seen in two previous disasters, President Bush sent federal aid to earthquake-ravaged Northern California today and promised to "take every step and make every effort to help the Bay Area." "We're going to turn to the American people to help those in need," he said. "So far, I think from an organizational standpoint, people are moving in the right direction and we're going to follow it very, very closely from here."

New York City Mayor Edward I. Koch, under attack for his own controversial program to care for the city's mentally ill homeless, lashed out at the Reagan Administration Wednesday for what he called its inattention to the problem and urged an expanded federal role in providing help for these "pitifully sick people." But the mayor expressed doubt that the Administration will act.

Mayor Larry Guidi has sent a plea to President Clinton asking for federal aid for the financially beleaguered city. In a letter dated Feb. 9, Guidi asked for an emergency loan or grant from federal agencies to "avert a total shutdown of city operations or, at the very least, bankruptcy proceedings." The city is facing a $10.5-million deficit in its $27-million general fund budget.

Heads of a federal program for the poor have awarded about $100,000 in volunteer aid to an anti-abortion group, and an Administration appointee urged the organization to apply for $15 million more. Thomas Pauken, director of the volunteer agency ACTION, termed unauthorized a letter a subordinate sent to 46 state offices of Birthright Inc. that provided a plan for seeking grants that would absorb virtually the entire $17-million budget of the anti-poverty program VISTA.

Hoping to prevent cuts to mass transit service because of the economic downturn, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Thursday asked Sen. Dianne Feinstein for federal intervention to help 31 transit agencies, including the Metropolitan Transportation Agency. The MTA over the past 20 years has sold much of its equipment to investors and then leased it back. American International Group provided financing and insurance for many of the deals, but AIG's slipping credit rating threatens those deals and could leave the MTA with hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties and repayment costs.

SAN FRANCISCO The Bush administration has slashed San Francisco's federal AIDS budget by more than $4 million -- a 12% cut. The cuts appeared this week after U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson announced the new Ryan White CARE grants, which are doled out to the 51 metropolitan areas in the United States hit hardest by AIDS and HIV.

U.S. mayors called on the federal government to reverse a decade-long plunge in aid to cities despite the strain the Gulf War is putting on the nation's finances. The mayors, concluding their winter meeting, released a 50-city survey that found the federal contribution to city budgets dropped 64% from 1980 to 1990. Philadelphia Mayor W. Wilson Goode told a House panel: "Give us the tools we need to fight the war on drugs, against AIDS."