HARRISBURG - State Democratic senators angrily challenged Gov. Tom Corbett's top public welfare official Tuesday over the administration's moves to stop the growth of spending on a wide range of social safety-net programs despite rising demand and health care costs.
Among the Corbett administration's proposals are eliminating cash payments to poor adults, cutting 20 percent from aid for county-run social service programs, raising fees or copayments for people to use certain services and cutting reimbursements by 4 percent to hospitals and nursing homes that care for the poor.
The proposal for $629 million in savings and cutbacks comes after Corbett, a Republican, signed a budget in which the Republican-controlled Legislature cut $600 million in public welfare spending he had originally sought in favor of easing Corbett's proposed cuts in education spending.
It also comes amid what senators say is the disappearance of 89,000 children from the state's Medicaid rolls since August, prompting concerns that the Corbett administration's professed effort to ensure that only the eligible receive benefits is cloaking a campaign to save money by knocking people out of programs.
Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, questioned Department of Public Welfare Secretary Gary Alexander how he justifies a proposed $275 million tax cut for businesses while slashing benefits for the poor and disabled at a time people are still recovering from the recession.
"You've got to respond to everyone in this commonwealth of Pennsylvania when the costs are going to skyrocket in other places because of these cuts. How do you make this whole thing work?" Hughes asked Alexander. "These are women, these are seniors. The support network is being taken from them. It's a crisis they didn't create. The big cats are getting taken care of with the tax cuts. ... How do these people intend to get by? What do you anticipate will happen to them in this situation?"
Alexander, who was appearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee, didn't address the proposed tax cut or assertions by Democrats that peeling back services will cost more later in prison or emergency room costs.
But he maintained that the rising cost of Pennsylvania's current safety-net programs is unsustainable, particularly when Pennsylvania is getting less aid from the federal government. He also said Pennsylvania's menu of state-only programs is more generous than what many other states offer, and that he is working hard to get the temporarily disabled into programs that help them find work.
"(If) we're going to have a program in place or a safety net in place in the commonwealth, it has to be financially sustainable," Alexander said. "Right now, with 5.8 million people working full-time and over 2.7 million people accessing public assistance, we are headed for some collision course. We have to do something."
The governor's proposal to steer state aid for seven human services programs through a single block grant - with a 20 percent funding cut - drew some skepticism from Sen. Lisa Baker, R-20, Lehman Township, a panel member.
Officials want to know if the block grant format means local groups will be pitted against each other to obtain aid, Baker said.
"They are being asked to do more with less with little guidance," she said.
Alexander said the details of the block grant proposal are still being worked out in consultation with the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania.
Asked by Sen. Pat Vance, R-Cumberland, to explain the disappearance of 89,000 children from Medicaid rolls, Alexander said he didn't know where the figure came from - children's advocates cite the department's own figures - but insisted that thousands of cases had piled up that had not been reviewed for eligibility every six months.
"This is a procedure and a law and a regulation that's been in place for many years. All we're doing is enforcing it," Alexander said.
Corbett, a Republican, campaigned on a pledge not to increase taxes, and is facing his second straight projected budget deficit. He is proposing a $27.1 billion hold-the-line spending plan that would cut businesses taxes and spending for education and human services while grappling with lackluster tax collections and rising health care and pension costs.
Corbett and Republican lawmakers are placing a major emphasis on reducing "waste, fraud and abuse" in the massive, $10.5 billion public welfare agency - $27 billion including federal money - and Alexander said he has hired more investigators to help. But he told senators that he could not give an estimate for how much those efforts have saved to date.
Sen. John Blake, D-Lackawanna, told Alexander that he wants him to provide the Appropriations Committee with a tally of savings that are attributable to reducing waste, fraud and abuse, and a tally of the number of people that have been cut off Medicaid since he became secretary. Alexander agreed.
Alexander also said he has formally asked the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in a Feb. 7 letter for more flexibility in managing maintenance-of-effort requirements in Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor and disabled.
(Harrisburg Bureau Chief Robert Swift contributed to this report.)