HARRISBURG — State Democratic senators angrily challenged Gov. Tom Corbett’s top public welfare official Tuesday over the administration’s moves to stop the growth of spending on a wide range of social safety-net programs despite rising demand and health care costs.

Among the Corbett administration’s proposals are eliminating cash payments to poor adults, cutting 20 percent from aid for county-run social service programs, raising fees or copayments for people to use certain services and cutting reimbursements by 4 percent to hospitals and nursing homes that care for the poor.

The proposal for $629 million in savings and cutbacks comes after Corbett, a Republican, signed a budget in which the Republican-controlled Legislature cut $600 million in public welfare spending he had originally sought in favor of easing Corbett’s proposed cuts in education spending.

It also comes amid what senators say is the disappearance of 89,000 children from the state’s Medicaid rolls since August, prompting concerns that the Corbett administration’s professed effort to ensure that only the eligible receive benefits is cloaking a campaign to save money by knocking people out of programs.

Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, questioned Department of Public Welfare Secretary Gary Alexander how he justifies a proposed $275 million tax cut for businesses while slashing benefits for the poor and disabled at a time people are still recovering from the recession.

“You’ve got to respond to everyone in this commonwealth of Pennsylvania when the costs are going to skyrocket in other places because of these cuts. How do you make this whole thing work?” Hughes asked Alexander. “These are women, these are seniors. The support network is being taken from them. It’s a crisis they didn’t create. The big cats are getting taken care of with the tax cuts. ... How do these people intend to get by? What do you anticipate will happen to them in this situation?”

Alexander, who was appearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee, didn’t address the proposed tax cut or assertions by Democrats that peeling back services will cost more later in prison or emergency room costs.

But he maintained that the rising cost of Pennsylvania’s current safety-net programs is unsustainable, particularly when Pennsylvania is getting less aid from the federal government.

He also said Pennsylvania’s menu of state-only programs is more generous than what many other states offer, and that he is working hard to get the temporarily disabled into programs that help them find work.