It's Getting to Be Budget Time

We are only a few days away from the June 15th deadline when - under the California constitution - the legislature has to enact a state "budget." We put "budget" in quotes because the legislature only has to enact a bill which it declares is a budget. There can in fact be some kind of partial bill and continued negotiation between legislative Democrats and the governor. (Republicans are marginalized in California and no longer have much influence. The penalty for the legislature not to enact something is no pay for legislators for each day beyond the required enactment date.) 

Even with the fiscal games that can be played, there needs to be a budget in place and signed by the governor before July 1 or the state will begin to have problems in paying its bills. In the bad old days when there were stalled budget negotiations in a bipartisan setting, there were episodes in which the state did go beyond July 1 without a budget in place - sometimes well beyond - and bills were not paid.

Technically, the governor has a line-item veto which could be exercised after a real budget is passed by the legislature. But because deals are typically cut between legislative leaders and the governor, such vetoes are now rare.

Stay tuned.