California Budget Balanced... For Now

NY Times reports that California Legislature finally approved a budget to close the $26 Billion Gap.

The budget contains a vast array of spending cuts that will soon be felt throughout the state. The K-12 education budget, which also includes community colleges, lost $6.1 billion from its roughly $58 billion base, and higher education took a $2 billion hit.

There were accounting tricks, like $1.2 billion that will be saved in a one-time deferment of state worker paychecks for one day, moving them into the next fiscal year.

Tough, but at least by screwing over the next generation of intellectuals, California has solved the budget crisis for good... right? Nope. Not even Arnold and California's legislative leaders think that's the case. Business Week reports:

"We are still in troubled waters; there are still uncertainties," the Republican governor said. "We don't know how much longer our revenues will drop. We don't know if we may not be back in the next six months to make further cuts."

Legislative leaders said much the same thing.

"It's entirely likely we will ultimately see further declines in revenue, which will almost certainly require further budget action," said Assembly Minority Leader Sam Blakeslee, a Republican from San Luis Obispo.

Source: NY Times