Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park got a reprieve and education caught a break, but health and human services took it on the chin in the May revise of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed state budget.

Slated for closure in the governor’s January budget proposal, the state park system was spared in the revise when the governor rescinded his cut and proposed a $1 to $2 entry fee increase.

Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park is a year-round campground located along the Van Duzen River 17 miles east of U.S. Highway 101 on State Highway 36.

“That’s absolutely good news,” said Willie Buergler, owner of Swain’s Flat Outpost two miles east of the park. “From springtime to fall, the park probably means a few hundred bucks a day to my business. It’s very good news for the people I know who come here every year from San Francisco.”

“We’ve got a lot of people who come in here to use the bathroom and they’ve been real upset about the closure,” joked one park employee who said he was “happy” with the news and referred any other questions to the main office.

Assemblywoman Patty Berg’s office said only education topped parks as the subject of constituent letters sent to her office.

The governor restored $97.6 million to the California State University budget — “a step in the right direction,” said Lillian Taiz, president of the California Faculty Association — by increasing higher education spending from $13.8 billion to $14.2 billion.

“It isn’t close to enough,” Humboldt State University spokesperson Paul Mann said.

The governor’s proposal will keep fee increases within the range negotiated in the Compact for Higher Education — 7.4 percent for the University of California and 10 percent for the CSU.

CSU trustees meeting in Long Beach on Wednesday voted 15-3 to raise yearly undergraduate tuition by $276, or 10 percent. The increase means that undergraduates will pay an average of $3,797 next year — twice as much as what a CSU school cost in the fall of 2000.

University of California board members, meanwhile, tentatively approved an increase that would bring the average annual cost for undergraduates to $8,007 for the 2008-09 academic year, which also represents a doubling in price from the start of the decade.

“Annual fees for undergraduates are going to go up $276; $324 for teacher credential students and $342 for graduate students,” Mann said of the sixth fee hike in seven years.

At the other end of the spectrum, the governor called it “difficult” and “painful” but handed the Department of Health and Human Services an additional $1.1 billion in cuts.

The May revision eliminates non-emergency services other than prenatal care, nursing facility care, and breast and cervical cancer treatment for new immigrants and undocumented immigrants.

Another $31 million in savings will come at the expense of two-parent households in the Medi-Cal program. The allowable income will be reduced to 61 percent of the Federal Poverty Level and a rule requiring the primary wage earner to work no more than 100 hours per month will be reinstated.

Also impacted: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and a category of coverage — 1931b — created to ensure states would not decreases families’ access to Medi-Cal.

State DHHS secretary Kim Belshe said 400,000 people are eligible today for full coverage under 1931b, but by rolling back an expansion of eligibility made in 2000, the state could save $30 million next year and as much as $342 million in 2011-12.

The change affects applicants and not recipients.

“We remain concerned about the overall proposed reductions to safety net services for those who cannot advocate for themselves — children, families and the elderly,” said Phillip Crandall, director of Humboldt County Health and Human Services.

“This budget offers little more than a fig leaf for education, while savaging health care and social service programs like only a Terminator could,” said state Sen. Patricia Wiggins. “We will move as quickly as possible in analyzing the governor’s proposals in detail. But we will also move as responsibly as possible to ensure that this budget does not result in undue harm to children, seniors, working families or the poor.”