It was a tough week for those who depend on a myriad of state social services, and it may only get worse... as California finds itself in a financial tailspin.

On this week's Capital Notes Podcast, we take a look at some of the cuts proposed (including new proposals to reduce state worker pay). Capitol Weekly's Anthony York and I also talk about efforts for federal help when it comes to California getting a 'co-signor' on its Wall Street loans.

[program note: A brief podcast hiatus next week, and a return to political coverage the second week of June. --JM]

[note update on state worker pay at bottom of this posting --JM]

Add another unusual event to an already unusual year: Governor Schwarzenegger said today that he will deliver a speech to a joint session of the Legislature on the state's $22 billion budget deficit.
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Adding more angst to easily the worst budget situation in California history, officials confirm that the federal court appointed prison receivership has spent almost $500 million more than budgeted in the fiscal year that ends on June 30.

The cost overruns in the operation overseen by receiver Clark Kelso have been the subject of Capitol rumor for months. But the high price tag was only confirmed over the last 24 hours, first by comments made during a budget conference committe hearing on Tuesday and later by Kelso himself.
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Governor Schwarzenegger proposed a new list of deep reductions in state spending today, including more prisoners to be released early, a scrapping of a stalled state worker labor agreement, and new cuts in medical care for the poor.

And that won't be all; aides to the governor say he'll propose an additional $3 billion in spending reductions later this week.

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An election night that everyone got to turn in early, and one of the worst (if not the record) lowest voter turnout in California history. Quite the special election, eh?

In this week's Capital Notes Podcast, we examine the results and the messages of the voters rejecting all of the budget-balancing proposals on Tuesday. As Capitol Weekly's Anthony York and I discuss, finding any single message seems... well... impossible.

We also examine this week's dire budget news, including new projections of the deficit and the governor's call for more spending cuts.

[UPDATE: It appears that Schwarzenegger is now abandoning his call for about $5.5 billion in borrowing for the year starting July 1, a borrowing plan that the LAO (see below) has criticized. That means, according to his advisers, more spending cuts. --JM]

A new analysis of Governor Schwarzenegger's revised budget suggests that the deficit could end up being as large as $24 billion by July 2010, forcing even more severe choices by lawmakers over the next few months.

Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor released his new report this morning, and estimates that even if all of the governor's budget ideas are adopted, California faces a shortfall in excess of $15 billion the year after next. As a result, he says long-term planning is a must.
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Party over, oops, out of time! So tonight we're gonna party like it's 1999. -- Prince

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested dusting off the script of a movie he wasn't in today, Back To The Future, in telling reporters that the state budget should match its anemic revenues -- now about where they were a decade ago.
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Well, you had to know it was coming.

In the wake of yesterday's all-budget special election, a former candidate for the Legislature has formally filed an initiative to knock the California Legislature back to part-time status, more than four decades after it became a year-round affair.
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And now, the least surprising news of the political year: the special election called by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature to help solve the state's budget dilemma was a bust.

The voters have spoken. And their very loud answer on the five budget-related ballot measures with real impact: no.

There's a risk in playing crime scene investigator before the smoke has fully cleared. Still, it's hard to deny some of the more obvious reasons for Tuesday's train wreck, things that most everyone in California politics has been talking about for weeks...
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On this day before the big special election, there's a pretty noticeable quiet around the state Capitol, as California's budget needs will soon (and somewhat) be in the hands of the voters.

Until then, a few odds and ends related to the six proposition extravaganza are worth a mention...
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