Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger earned a mixed reaction from activists and Democratic lawmakers Thursday after he backed off proposed cuts to services for disabled people for the second time in his tenure.

Administration officials said at a Senate budget hearing that they would try to get the federal government to subsidize a state home-care program instead of cutting it as originally proposed in the GOP governor's January budget.

Advocates for disabled people and Democrats - who had been lobbying for the $450 million in cuts to be withdrawn - greeted the news with relief and said they were pleased that Schwarzenegger seemed to be flexible on social policy. But they also complained that the Department of Finance was reversing itself on budget cost-saving proposals that seemed to be hastily thrown together in the first place.

"I'm very appreciative that in this and other instances we've seen the governor, when alternatives came along, move off his position," said Sen. Wes Chesbro, D-Arcata, who chaired the budget panel hearing on the In-Home Supportive Services program Thursday.

But, Chesbro told a hearing room packed with people in wheelchairs: "This was a half-baked and not well-thought-out proposal. ... It's a good thing we didn't act on these things when the governor was pressing us to in December."

Opponents of the cuts had argued that eliminating the program would increase costs in other services for disabled people and would send many Californians into much more expensive nursing-home care.

Originally, the governor wanted to eliminate the program as part of a list of midyear budget cuts he suggested after he took office. The service uses state dollars to pay the wages of home-care aides for about 75,000 low-income people who are not eligible for a similar, but much larger, program that is subsidized by the federal government.

Californians who receive the state-funded aid include people whose caregivers are their parents or spouses, people who only receive help with domestic tasks, and people such as Alzheimer's patients who receive protective supervision.

The federal government has bent the rules for some other states to allow them to fund home care for people who fall into those categories. Schwarzenegger administration officials, who have been talking about the issue with the Bush administration since February, said they would seek a waiver of the federal rules for California, too.

Administration officials said they had no reason to believe they wouldn't get federal approval for their plan and would amend the budget to keep the program going. But they said they would reconsider the cuts if the federal approval did not come through.

The reversal follows a similar change Schwarzenegger made soon after he unveiled his list of midyear budget cuts in December. Originally, the administration suggested capping enrollment in programs for people with developmental disabilities such as mental retardation, autism and cerebral palsy. To do that, he proposed suspending the Lanterman Act, a state law that guarantees treatment and support services to disabled people.

After an outcry, Schwarzenegger reversed that position, saying, "It was just one of those things that slip through when you make decisions very quickly."

Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, issued a statement Thursday praising the home care decision.

"It was a troubling proposal from the start, and I am pleased the governor listened to our concerns and changed his mind," he said in the statement. "However, my colleagues are still bothered by other proposals that would have a negative effect on the elderly and disabled."

For advocates, the emphasis now shifts to fighting Schwarzenegger's other proposed cuts to home care, which has become, over the last decade, the centerpiece of the state's programs for people who need long-term help if they are to continue to live in their own homes.

Costs and enrollment have risen dramatically. Annual costs have almost doubled in the past five years, from $1.4 billion to $2.7 billion.

While caseloads have gone up, about 46 percent of that growth is due to increases in worker wages. Some counties pay more than $10 an hour, and the state pays a portion of wages up to $9.50 an hour. Schwarzenegger wants to stop the state subsidy for any amount the workers earn above the minimum wage of $6.75.

Advocates said Thursday that cutting wages would decrease the stability and quality of care that recipients get.

Candace Howes, an economics professor at Connecticut College who is studying California's In-Home Supportive Services program, said the wage cuts would be devastating to a program that has become a national model "for efficient, cost-effective, high-quality provision of long-term care."

Most states, she said, provide home care through agencies that are more expensive, instead of allowing clients to choose their own workers, as California does.