Selma resident Jean Waggoner was looking forward to being able to pay off her $4,000 pair of hearing aids. Specifically, the 79-year-old was expecting a check for about $300 from the state's Homeowner and Renter Assistance program, a fund which provides a once-a-year tax credit to renters or homeowners including low-income citizens, seniors, the blind and the disabled. But because of a $190 million cut to the program by Gov. Schwarzenegger -- which was done in order to close the state's $15.2 billion budget shortfall -- Waggoner and thousands of other citizens around the state won't be receiving assistance this year.

"It's a very big disappointment," she said.

Waggoner is one of an estimated 600,000 citizens in California who applied or will apply for this assistance but won't be getting it, said Jacob Roper, public information officer for the California State Controller's office.

Lauri Linder, program coordinator for the Selma Senior Center, roughly estimates that as many as 350 seniors in Selma could be effected by this funding cut. Requests for information from the Kingsburg Senior Center were unanswered.

Linder helps seniors fill out the application for the program and said she's helped about 175 people so far this year. She estimates an additional 175 seniors have applied themselves.

Already, Linder said, many seniors in Selma have expressed their frustration about the governor's cut to the program.

"All of them have been extremely disappointed that it was going to get cut," she said. "It's going to effect a lot of people."

Although figures for Selma were not available for 2007 or 2008, countywide statistics from 2007 indicate that several thousand citizens could feel the effects.

According to figures provided by Roper, just more than 15,200 claims were filed for renters in Fresno County in 2007. Of that, $4.9 million in assistance was provided.

For homeowners in 2007, the figure is slightly less at almost 4,900 claimants. The state paid $1.46 million in assistance to those residents, Roper said.

The program, which has existed since 1968, was first created to provide economic relief to low-income seniors, according to Roper.

Currently, the program provides tax credits to eligible homeowners or renters based on a percentage of property taxes that they pay directly, if a homeowner, or indirectly, if a renter.

Back in Selma, homeowners like Waggoner worry that the program might go unfunded in the future.

"I'm not going to count on it anymore," she said.

Waggoner said she's received this assistance for the past 10 years and that it has been helpful, since she lives on a fixed budget of $1,200 per month from Social Security.

Other Selma seniors, like 78-year-old homeowner Joyce Spurgeon, said that while she isn't financially strapped, the assistance would have helped.

Specifically, Spurgeon was going to use the money -- about $100 -- to go toward buying an iron fence to keep her cats safe from neighboring dogs.

"I was looking forward to putting that wrought iron fence up," she said.

Spurgeon said it's likely she'll have to dip into her savings to pay for it.

Despite this, she also plans to reapply for the credit next year.

In the end, both Spurgeon and Waggoner said they feel like they've been given short shrift by the state.

"It's a shame what they're doing toward our elderly," she said.

Waggoner feels much the same.

"I just hope that they do something to help the people," she said.

Even at the state level, Assemblyman Juan Arambula, D-Fresno, said he disapproves of the cut.

"I don't support the cuts and I think it's a mistake for the governor to have blue penciled, or vetoed, that part of the budget that the legislature passed," he said.

Arambula said he recently took up the issue in an assembly budget subcommittee.

At the time, the committee was planning to reduce the program by 10 percent, in order to stay in line with Gov. Schwarzenegger's request to cut programs by that much across the board.

But the governor's veto cut all funding for the program, which Arambula said is unfortunate.

In the time since the program was cut, Arambula's office has received a number of phone calls about it, he said. In response, Arambula has suggested to citizens that they call the local office of the governor.

Others at the state level, including Roper with the controller's office, said State Controller John Chiang also wants the funding reinstated.

"The state controller strongly urges the legislature to keep these funds intact," he said.

But Arambula said he and his fellow legislators can't take up the issue of reinstating funding again until next year, when legislators draft the 2009-2010 state budget.

This is because it would require overriding the governor's veto, which is an action that Republican legislators have indicated they'd likely not vote for, Arambula said.

"At this point, there is nothing I can do to override the governor's veto," he said. "I wish he had not done that."