Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered on Wednesday a better accounting of surplus state property and plans to sell some of the real estate to help close the budget gap.

A spokeswoman for the governor confirmed that Schwarzenegger's budget update, scheduled for release today, depends in part on anticipated revenue from properties that are sold but would not say by how much.

In other budget balancing moves, Schwarzenegger appeared ready to back off some of the cuts he proposed in January to programs serving the medically indigent.

Legislative Democrats said they were doubtful Schwarzenegger would follow through on earlier plans to cap enrollment in the state's Healthy Families program -- a move that could leave thousands of children without health care.

It was also expected that the governor would shy away from his proposal of a 10 percent rate reduction for doctors and ambulance services for Medi-Cal patients, which would have saved $600 million over two years. A court had already thrown out a 5 percent reduction enacted by then-Gov. Gray Davis.

Lawmakers were less certain, however, that other health and social services programs had been spared from caps or cuts. Schwarzenegger had also proposed capping an AIDS drug assistance program and a program that provides care for children who are critically ill with cancer or other life-threatening diseases.

The governor is also expected to announce some cuts to prison spending, a source of continual overspending in the last five years. A source familiar with the plans said the administration wants to save money by doing things like eliminating one hot meal per day on weekends in all prisons, changing the way parolees are handled to reduce the number sent back to prison and instituting better controls over medical contracts and pharmacy operations.

The prison guards union, whose members are due an 11 percent raise in July, expects the governor to deny the raise in his budget and renegotiate the union's contract. Canceling the raise would save about $200 million.

The executive order Schwarzenegger issued requires state agencies to inventory and analyze their property holdings, in preparation to selling them if they are deemed unnecessary.

Surplus state property has been a focus of Republican legislators, who say state money has been tied up in real estate that has little or no public benefit. One senator estimates the state owns at least $1 billion worth of property that it does not need.

Earlier this year, senators Jim Battin, R-La Quinta (Riverside County), and Jeff Denham, R-Salinas, drew up a list of properties owned by the state which they said serve no apparent public purpose.

The properties include part of a golf course in the Oakland Hills, properties in Tahiti and Hawaii, a home owned by the University of California in Sausalito, apartment complexes, land under a truck dealership and a strip mall, among whose tenants is an apparent massage parlor.