Facing a massive $24 billion state budget deficit -- with cash expected to run out by July -- California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is cutting costs wherever he can, and that includes programs that keep HIV-positive people alive and healthy.

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Schwarzenegger is hoping to slash the entirety of the $96 million program that provides care to 35,000 HIVers, according to an alert from the Los Angeles County Commission on HIV. The San Francisco AIDS Foundation says this cut, as devastating as it would be on its own, could jeopardize another $150 million in federal matching funds the state receives for HIV care.

“The San Francisco AIDS Foundation is adamantly opposed to the draconian cuts to health and human service programs proposed by Governor Schwarzenegger that would risk the lives of thousands of Californians,” agency officials said. “The governor's tentative plan to remove all general fund support to the state Office of AIDS would jeopardize more than $150 million in federal matching funds that the state receives through grants from the Ryan White Program and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As a result, 35,000 California residents would lose access to their HIV medications because the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) would cease to exist.”

"This is the worst possible time to take support away from the most vulnerable Californians," said Judith Auerbach, Ph.D., vice president for science and public policy at the AIDS Foundation. "Balancing the budget on the backs of those at greatest risk threatens to reverse all progress made against the HIV epidemic over the past two decades."

The Schwarzenegger administration's plan to eliminate more than $160 million in HIV services is part of more than $5.5 billion in tentative new cuts to health and human services. In addition to gutting ADAP, the proposed budget cuts would eliminate services such as HIV counseling and testing, early intervention programs, and home and community-based care programs.