The governor's proposed state budget could mean a record loss of nearly $4 billion for Los Angeles County, putting hundreds of thousands of needy residents at risk of losing welfare checks, in-home care, health care and other services, officials said Tuesday.

"It's very stressful for us when we hear the state budget has a $20 billion shortfall," said Gloria Molina, who chairs the Board of Supervisors. "We know there is going to be an awful lot of cuts made for many of our services. That is terrifying to all of us."

Under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget, Molina said, nearly 400,000 county welfare recipients could lose $1 billion in benefits.

The Department of Public Social Services, which administers the CalWORKS welfare program, could lose an additional $577 million that pays for administrative, child care and other services to low-income people.

Molina said fewer people would qualify for health benefits under Schwarzenegger's proposal to cut $254 million in state Medi-Cal funds. Furthermore, 185,000 seniors, disabled and blind residents could lose services under the proposal to eliminate the county's $2 billion In-Home Supportive Services program.

Altogether, the county stands to lose nearly $2 billion in state revenues - or 9 percent of the county's $23.6 billion budget. That doesn't include the $2 billion in IHSS funding the state pays 135,000 workers to provide in-home care to county residents, Department of Public Social Services Director Phillip Browning said.

In comparison, the county lost $426 million in state revenues over the last two years of budget cuts and recently loaned $360 million in property tax revenues to the state.

"This would be a disaster for poor people in the county and throughout the state," said Neal Dudovitz, director of Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County. "The kind of cuts he's suggesting, even if there is some additional federal money, is going to cause enormous harm to families living in poverty in the county."

Instead of raising taxes further or cutting the benefits of poor people, Supervisor Mike Antonovich said the state should trim its bloated, highly paid work force.

From 1997 to 2007, the number of state workers grew 24 percent, from 719,000 to nearly 900,000. In 2003, only eight state employees earned more than $200,000 a year. Last year, nearly 1,000 state employees earned more than $200,000 annually.

"When the governor was first elected, he had a group of 250 top people review the state budget and they came up with a 2,500-page, $34 billion way of saving money at the state," Antonovich said. "And they promptly took that proposal and they put it in the trash can.

"We didn't follow through with any of those structural reforms and, as a result, we are now facing a $20 billion deficit affecting every city, county and school in this state."

If Schwarzenegger's budget were ultimately approved by the Legislature, officials say the cuts would dwarf the ones made during the county's last serious fiscal crisis in the mid-1990s. At that time, the county had a more than $650 million shortfall, but avoided bankruptcy through an infusion of federal funds, layoffs and cuts in services.

But despite Schwarzenegger's "doomsday scenario budget," fiscal experts note the governor made similar proposals last year, but those were blocked by legal challenges and state lawmakers. And even under the governor's proposal, the plan to eliminate CalWORKS, IHSS and Healthy Families would occur only if the federal government refuses to provide the state with the $6.9 billion the governor has requested.

"These cuts would be very deep and profoundly difficult reductions to make, which is why the governor is putting such a premium on going back to Washington and working with legislative leaders in a bipartisan manner of securing the federal funding that we need and are owed," said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the state Department of Finance.

Last week, the governor proposed to close the $19.9 billion budget gap with $8.5 billion in cuts in health and social services and $4.5 billion in alternative funding and fund shifts.

In response, county CEO Bill Fujioka said he has asked departments to prepare to make up to 9 percent cuts in the fiscal year that begins July 1. That's on top of 5 percent in cuts last year and 3 percent in cuts the year before.

Even under the best-case scenarios proposed by the governor, Browning said 160,000 seniors, disabled and blind people would lose in-home care services and a family of three would see their CalWORKS checks reduced from $694 to $585 a month. More than 400,000 parents and children in the county receive CalWORKS benefits.

"It would be much more difficult for them to find a place to live," Browning said.