The headline, rushed online yesterday by news outlets looking for a scoop, makes it clear the state's budget woes aren't getting better. Maybe even worse.

But deeper inside the new in-depth analysis of the Legislative Analyst's Office are examples of a government budget system that's evaporating faster than the polar icecaps.
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Following the well-worn advice that one good turn deserves another, Governor Schwarzenegger has unveiled his own TV ad on the budget deficit debate, four days after the debut of an ad criticizing him for proposing deeper spending cuts.

"Sacramento is asking me to sign a budget that raises your taxes and spends money we do not have," says the governor in an ad that's reminiscent of the old days. Also known as 2003.
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The debate over erasing California's massive budget deficit may now be headed into a new, and particularly bitter phase... as arguably the state's most powerful interest group hammers Governor Schwarzenegger for his suggestion to further reduce spending on public schools.
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With no fanfare, the main campaign in support of the six budget measures on the May 19 ballot has pivoted to a media blitz focused on just two measures... the two with the most state budget money riding on them, and the two that are most valuable to the campaign's biggest donors.

Unlike press releases heralding earlier ads, there was no notification to the media that the Budget Reform Now campaign was launching a new ad, one featuring a firefighter warning of possible bad times ahead.
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Four of the six measures on next month's statewide ballot seek to pull money, from various sources, to help plug the state's immediate and near-term budget hole.

One of them, if voters approve, would widen that hole by more than $9 billion dollars.

That measure is Proposition 1B, a complicated one-time solution to a fight over how much state government is legally obligated to pay for K-12 education and community colleges. And it is the focus of our ongoing coverage of special election measures on this morning's edition of The California Report.

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With the statewide special election now less than five weeks away, the first TV ad of the campaign to pass the budget-related measures is out.

And given its backers, it's not surprising which measures it promotes.
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The first campaign ads have been released by backers of the six budget-related ballot measures, sending a simple and expected message to voters: vote yes or things will get worse.
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