In the event you missed the note at the bottom of last week's post-budget item, I'm on furlough this week... part of KQED's budget crunch that hit most of our news staffers a couple of weeks ago, but yours truly only now -- due to all of the recent state Capitol news.

Look for new bloggings and radio reports starting next Tuesday. The furlough also means we'll miss this week's edition of the Capital Notes Podcast.

By now, most of us who lived through the saga that resulted in a package of proposals to resolve the state's budget deficit have recovered.

But in the same way you'd clean up the beer bottles, empty the trash, and try to piece together what you remember after a raucous bash, it's worth sifting through the deal making, the politics involved, and maybe a few of the lasting impressions that culminated with the events of the 20-plus hours between Thursday evening and Friday afternoon.
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As budget debating and voting happens tonight, catch my Twitter feed for updates as long as the thumbs hold up. And no, you don't have to join Twitter to read it.

More here later...

With a vote on a state budget deficit solution either late today or tomorrow, we figured let's use our waiting time constructively... by pushing forward our weekly wrap.

This week's Capital Notes Podcast is all deficit agreement, all the time. Of course, we're not sure exactly how big either the proposal is... or the problem, hence the term "Twentysomething."

Capitol Weekly's Anthony York and I examine some of the big items and finer points, including the dustup over spending cuts to the prison budget and assumptions that may not come true.

[Note: the draft report on the deficit deal that we reference can be found here, courtesy of crackerjack online whiz Scott Lay, whose day job is with the Community College League of California.]

The big finish to the 2009 Deficit Drama Part Two is on the way, a $25 billion cornucopia of lousy choices, tough decisions, and general gloominess about the state's deficit problems.

So let's see where things stand.
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[The so-called 'Big Five' announce the deficit deal. Listen to the audio of this announcement above.]

A local government official made a comment Monday afternoon, a few hours before the $25 billion deficit deal was reached, that seems to encapsulate everyone's feelings.

"As this budget hits the street today and people look at it," said San Mateo County Supervisor Rich Gordon, "I think Californians are going to say, 'How did we get in this mess?'"

The answer is a tough one, and so is the way out -- a package of cuts, revisions, and projections that seem to indicate a new era in state and local governance is on the horizon. For better or worse.
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Governor Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders strike $26 billion deficit deal. Still working on details... check back later and/or via Twitter.

We were all educated over these past few days in the ways of budget politics. Pun fully intended, of course.

On this week's Capital Notes Podcast, we examine the status of sputtering budget talks (at least, as of our taping on late Thursday afternoon). Most notably, the battle over Proposition 98 -- Test 1, maintenance factor, you know you love it.

Capitol Weekly's Anthony York and I also discuss the likelihood that whatever deficit deal is struck, it's likely to again include those little maneuvers (some would call them gimmicks) that help close the final distance.

A pretty good jab at the folks in the state Capitol came in today from Treasurer Bill Lockyer, a written statement on the deficit negotiations that now seem slower, not faster.
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If you took out a calculator, added up some numbers, and hit "equals," you'd expect an answer that was indisputable, right?

Now imagine there were certain buttons on the calculator that would make the math turn out differently. Or suppose you and a friend just agreed the calculator's result was flawed and from now on you'd tweak it. Or suppose the two of you couldn't even agree on what numbers to enter into the calculator.

If all of that was the case... would you use that process to spend as much as $50 billion in taxpayer money? No? Then read no further... because you're not going to like what's after the jump.
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