The battle over California's gaping budget hole is probably going to get more intense before it ends... as just about everyone thinks someone else is to blame.
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It was an unusual ending to a long day, the final day of the 2008-2009 fiscal year. But there was no surprise ending: the conventional wisdom won out, as the state slipped into the new budget year with no solutions in place to a deficit that could be as large as $24 billion.
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You're not really surprised that things turned out this way today, are you?

Of course, that's not to say that some parts of today's budget news weren't unexpected. And few would venture a guess as to what happens next... though indications are the Legislature will be spending the final weekend of June in session.

For a formal look at today's events, dial in to The California Report tomorrow morning. In the meantime...
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Audio from budget vote September 9, 2008

Few expect that today's debate and votes in the Legislature will produce a final resolution to California's historic fiscal crisis.

But by day's end, there will hopefully be a better sense of where we're headed... and when. Can lawmakers strike a deal before the state runs out of money in less than five weeks time?
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In the theater or the movies, we'd call this the beginning of Act Two. In baseball, it's probably the sixth inning.

We now have two relatively complete looks at how to resolve the gaping hole in the state budget -- one from Governor Schwarzenegger, one from legislative Democrats -- with the Dem plan headed for a vote on the floor of each house as soon as Monday.
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My interview yesterday with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger included a new assertion from the chief executive: that his willingness to break his anti-tax stance earlier this year was a one-time deal to which Democratic legislative leaders agreed.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger the optimist was back on display this morning in his brief, and serious, speech to a joint session of the Legislature.

But the governor, who's fond of saying that "he alone cannot lift" the fiscal weights of California, now must find a way to get Democrats and Republicans lifting the same weight. At the same time.
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It's one of the maxims of California politics: what the voters do, often only the voters can undo.

And that's the real story of Proposition 1D and Proposition 1E, both which were placed on the ballot by the Legislature in hopes of funneling more money into the state's beleaguered general fund. Of course, they also would mean money taken from programs voters endorsed in 1998 and 2004.

Our radio report on the measures aired this morning on The California Report.

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It wasn't specifics that reporters learned today in a wide-ranging chat with the leader of the state Senate, but rather a map for the budget debate that lies ahead -- regardless of what happens in the May 19 special election.

Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's main message was this: if the budget-related ballot measures pass, the remaining deficit is likely manageable. If they don't, it won't be pretty.

"Is it a scare tactic?," said the Democratic leader. "No, it's reality. The numbers are the numbers."
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The rhetoric in support and opposition of the marquee measure on next month's special election ballot is fairly simple. The measure itself is anything but.

On this morning's edition of The California Report, we presented the first of two stories examining the details and ramifications of Proposition 1A.

A close examination of Prop 1A finds it's neither the tight spending cap nor ultra-prudent rainy day fund it's often made out to be. As often is the case in politics, the truth is a little more complicated.
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