Legislature Gets Warning on Welfare Plan : Government: Wilson is likely to veto parts of his own package if lawmakers do not include the 25% benefit cut he is demanding, Administration officials say.

SACRAMENTO —  Gov. Pete Wilson is likely to veto parts of his own welfare plan if the Legislature sends it to him piecemeal without the 25% benefit cut that is the centerpiece of his package, Administration officials said Wednesday.

Wilson, meanwhile, told legislative leaders that the state budget picture is $4 billion bleaker than he had previously acknowledged. He called on lawmakers to “set aside partisan differences” and work with him to find a solution.

On the welfare issue, Wilson sent a strong signal that he will not permit the Democrats to undercut his proposed ballot initiative by passing the most popular parts of it, leaving him to defend the more controversial provisions when he asks the voters to pass the measure in the fall.

Health and Welfare Secretary Russell Gould told reporters that he will advise the governor to reject any piece of the Administration plan unless the Legislature passes it all.

“We ought to go with a comprehensive plan--the whole thing,” Gould said. “I don’t think we ought to do it incrementally.”

Kassy Perry, Wilson’s deputy director of communications, said later that the governor agrees with Gould’s position.

“The governor is not inclined to sign individual pieces of legislation claiming to be welfare reform,” Perry said. “He has said that this is a comprehensive effort and so he is sticking with the plan as he sent it to the Legislature.”

In addition to the general benefit cut, Wilson’s plan would further reduce grants to newly arrived California residents, deny aid to children born to women already on welfare and penalize teen-age mothers who drop out of school. The proposal also would allow welfare recipients to keep more of the income they earn from jobs before losing their benefits.

Two separate plans put forward by Assembly and Senate Democratic leaders, when taken together, include provisions similar to almost everything in Wilson’s package--except the benefit cut.

Wilson wants to cut benefits immediately by 10%--from $663 monthly to $597 for a family of three--and another 15% after six months for families that include an able-bodied adult. More than half of the reduction would be made up by an increase in food stamps, Wilson says. The Assembly Democrats have agreed to a 4.5% reduction and Senate Democrats are willing to cut grants by up to 4.5%, depending on the cost of living in different regions of the state.

Gould, asked if it wasn’t risky for the governor to reject parts of his own package in hopes of winning it all in November, said he thought it “was time we take a chance.”

To make the other changes without cutting benefits, he argued, would amount to “trimming around the edges.”

Democratic lawmakers who have fashioned the legislative alternatives to Wilson’s plan blasted the Administration for its take-it-or-leave-it position.

“For anyone to say, ‘It’s my package, all or nothing,’ is the height of arrogance,” said state Sen. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena). “We all start with a proposal, and as it moves through the process, we try to hone it to be the best possible law we can get out of here. That’s what we are trying to do.”

Democratic Assemblyman Tom Bates of Oakland said the Administration’s statements are further evidence that Wilson is “playing politics” with the lives of California’s neediest residents.

“One man cannot set himself up to be the dictator of California,” Bates said.

Wilson sent a different signal Wednesday on the broader issue of the overall budget deficit, inviting legislative leaders to meet in his office next week and start talking about solutions. Wilson said the $60.2-billion budget he proposed in January is now $4 billion out of balance because revenues have failed to match his projections. That amount is double what would have been cut by an Assembly Democratic proposal to make reductions as deep as 18% in many state programs.

“The state’s deteriorating fiscal condition demands that we set aside partisan differences and work toward a resolution of the budget crisis we are facing,” Wilson wrote in a letter to legislative leaders.