http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 0507.story

Board's Money Hopes Take a Beating
L.A. County supervisors visit Washington, D.C., seeking to stop proposed program cuts. They get polite smiles, but no funding promises.
By Noam N. Levey
Times Staff Writer

May 1, 2006

WASHINGTON — When Los Angeles County's public health system teetered on the edge of collapse in the mid-1990s, local leaders found their white knight in the nation's capital.

But a decade after the federal government came to the rescue, Washington has become a less hospitable place for America's most populous county, as supervisors and their aides were reminded during a lobbying trip last week.

Though the county is still struggling to keep poor mothers off welfare, pay for jailing illegal immigrants and provide healthcare to hundreds of thousands of uninsured people, federal dollars are harder to come by.

And in an era of rising partisanship, ballooning deficits and fading support for big government anti-poverty programs, a polite smile from those who control the federal purse strings is about all a local government in the nation's biggest blue state can be guaranteed.

"This has become a much more politically charged place," said Edwin Rosado, legislative director of the National Assn. of Counties and a veteran of Washington politics.

At a time when Republicans control Congress and the White House, the county's traditional Democratic allies are almost always outgunned, Rosado said. "There's just no power there."

Also, the county is competing for attention in a capital city consumed at the moment with worries over rising oil prices, immigration and impending congressional elections.

So, as they trudged though Washington, Los Angeles County supervisors emerged with more reminders of the difficulty they face than promises of real relief.

To be sure, prying money from Washington has never been easy for local governments.

Counties such as Los Angeles, which relies on federal funding for about a quarter of its nearly $20-billion budget, come to the capital annually in search of money for healthcare, welfare and other social services they are charged with administering.

Even under the Clinton administration, which was typically more supportive of government programs and agreed to bailouts of the Los Angeles County health system in 1995 and 2000, there were battles over funding cuts.

And no matter the administration, Los Angeles County must always contend with the dim view that members of Congress from other parts of the nation traditionally have had of California and its oversized problems and needs.

"It's the ABC problem: Anywhere But California," Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles) said.

But even though the needs remain acute in Los Angeles County, the doors don't open as quickly, say many veteran lawmakers and lobbyists.

County leaders are trying to head off Medicaid cuts being contemplated by the Bush administration that they fear may cost the vulnerable public health system $200 million a year.

The county is also fighting to restore funding for popular block grant programs that pay for redevelopment efforts in impoverished neighborhoods and for services to the poor. And they are looking to stop the federal government from cutting funds for a program to collect child support, and another that reimburses counties for jailing thousands of illegal immigrants who have committed crimes.

According to the county, it cost $73 million last year to hold illegal immigrants in county jails, and only 12.5% of that money was reimbursed by the federal government. Local officials say that's unfair, as it burdens them with what should be a federal obligation — controlling immigration.

There was plenty of sympathy — but little in the way of real encouragement — from California's Democratic lawmakers.

"We'll do everything we can," Sen. Barbara Boxer told the county supervisors when they came to see her. Though county elections are nonpartisan, three of the county's five supervisors are Democrats.

The county and its allies confront a White House under pressure to bring down the size of the federal deficit and still take into account other priorities, such as tax cuts and the war in Iraq.

The Bush administration has sought billions of dollars in reductions in Medicaid, the federal program that provides healthcare for the poor. It is proposing to cut the Community Development Block Grant by close to 25%, and to eliminate the Community Services Block Grant program, which counties use to support community organizations that work with the poor.

And Congress is planning reductions to the child-support program, which officials said helped Los Angeles County collect money from deadbeat parents and keep families off welfare.

"The picture doesn't look good," said Rep. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), who like many other Democratic House members said she felt powerless to do much.

Bush administration spokesman Alex Conant said the White House had little choice but to cut.

"This is a tough budget year. In order to continue to cut the deficit, we've had to focus on our priorities and tighten our belts elsewhere," Conant said.

Administration officials have consistently argued they are maintaining the federal government's commitment to helping the poor, but taking a harder look at what programs are effective.

The Bush administration recently approved a critical rule change that will provide funds to allow Los Angeles and other California counties to continue to help foster children after they have returned to their families.

Several Republican lawmakers from Southern California, including Rep. Mary Bono of Palm Springs, said they would try to restore some of the proposed cuts, as they have in previous years.

But no promises were made.

When county leaders went to visit Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas), the powerful House Rules Committee chairman said between chomps on an apple only that he would do what he could. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) missed his meeting with county leaders because he had to be on the House floor for a vote.

When county supervisors went to see a group of Bush administration officials, they left more frustrated than they were when they arrived.

"We came away not really sure what is happening," said Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, a Democrat who served in Congress in the 1970s.

A spokesman said the Bush administration would not discuss the meeting.

Even Supervisor Don Knabe, a Republican from Cerritos, found it hard to be sanguine.

"It's not so much about whether they'll vote with us," Knabe said, noting the current disarray in the capital. "I'm worried about if they'll vote at all."