Budget Clock Winds Down

It’s beginning to look as if a resolution of the state’s budget crisis is becoming farther out of reach with each passing day. A plan floated last week by state Sen. Frank Hill, a Whittier Republican, has some of the marks of a deal maker; but the one Republican who must be pleased--Gov. Pete Wilson--seems to be in no mood for agreements.

This week, for example, Wilson announced that negotiations with Democratic leaders had reached an impasse over what the Democrats said they considered a side issue affecting county-run welfare programs. Meanwhile, even the agreements that have been achieved have started to unravel. Cities win a point but then counties are up in arms, and so on.

Most important, there’s no apparent progress on the extent of public school and community college cuts--the main sticking point in the deadlock, now entering its sixth week. The governor insists on a $2.3-billion cut in education to help bridge the state’s $10.7-billion gap between revenues and expenses; Assembly Democrats have drawn the line at $605 million.

All this may not seem real to most Californians, but that soon will begin to change. The state has kept things running by paying employees and many of its bills with registered warrants--essentially IOUs. But the Bank of America and some other banks have stopped accepting warrants. What’s more, warrants can’t be used to pay state vendors, a situation that is forcing some toward financial chaos. Some social service recipients are technically in the same boat as vendors, although because of court orders they have continued to receive checks. But that might change by the middle of August.

The stalemate makes a proposal by Assemblyman Rusty Areias (D-Los Banos) look increasingly appropriate: It would authorize payment of the state’s bills until a budget is adopted.

It’s a scandal that there is no budget at this point. But even worse is the slow-motion toppling of the dominoes onto more and more innocent victims.