SAN DIEGO COUNTY -- Struggling San Diego County residents who depend on financial help from the state don't have to worry that IOUs will replace their checks, state and county officials said Wednesday.

People with children receiving temporary welfare assistance; blind, disabled and elderly people; and people collecting state unemployment or disability insurance will continue to be paid by the county and federal governments, even if the state begins issuing IOUs Thursday, officials said.

Services for people with developmental disabilities, county alcohol and drug treatment programs and the county Department of Mental Health will see no immediate cuts, county officials said.

State Controller John Chiang has said that beginning Thursday, he would have no choice but to issue IOUs to state contractors, college students, taxpayers owed refunds and to counties for social programs if the California Legislature and governor failed to balance the state budget. As of Thursday evening, that hadn't happened.

California ended the fiscal year Tuesday with a $24.3 billion deficit, and a $3 billion shortfall is projected for July.

The controller's office on Wednesday published a list of entities and individuals who would get IOUs instead of payments for July. Social services programs, mostly administered by counties, are slated to get $1.7 billion in IOUs instead of checks.

But individuals in San Diego County depending on state assistance should not be immediately affected because the county already has plans to run social-services programs for July and August without state funding, county officials said.

And state grant assistance to blind or disabled people, and the elderly, known as the State Supplementary Payment or SSP, will be covered by the federal government for at least July and August, state officials said.

State-funded unemployment and disability insurance checks are not affected by the general fund crisis, a spokesman for the state controller said.

San Diego County residents participating in CalWORKs, a welfare-to-work program for poor families, will continue to receive assistance, county Chief Financial Officer Donald Steuer said. Other social services administered by the county, such as alcohol and drug treatment programs and mental health services, also will see no immediate cuts, he said.

Steuer said the county has known for months that the state was going to be late on its July and August funding for health and human services programs. In February, the state Legislature adopted a budget that delayed payments to counties for those programs until September. The county's budget includes fronting approximately $50 million for July and August.

"We anticipated the July and August deferrals," he said. "We've got those covered."

Steuer said that as long as the state is able to cover its IOUs by the date it is promising -- Oct. 1, 2009 -- the county would probably not have to cut social services.

"The question is, is this going to continue? As long as the money comes when they say it will come, there won't be an impact," he said. "Otherwise, we'd have to look at impacting programs. How we would do that, we're beginning to look at that now."

Even if the state makes good on its promise to pay the county for July and August, future funding for welfare, social services and health programs is uncertain. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget fix includes deep cuts in those areas, though Democratic lawmakers have rebuffed those cuts so far.

The state controller said Wednesday that college students would be issued about $159 million in IOUs in place of July Cal Grant payments. Cal Grants are available to students based on grade point average and financial need.

Margaret Lutz, a spokeswoman for Cal State San Marcos, said the IOUs would not immediately affect students there because the grants are not issued in the summer. She said that in the 2008-09 academic year, 1,002 of the university's 9,150 students collected about $3.2 million in Cal Grant assistance. If the state is unable to cover disbursements by the fall, she said students would be affected.

"We're staying tuned for further developments on the state budget," Lutz said.

Call staff writer Sarah Gordon at 760-740-3517.

California Controller's IOU information: http://www.sco.ca.gov/5919.html