Run That Tab, Sacramento : Those costs do mount as the governor and Legislature fiddle

Still no agreement on a state budget--and how the costs are mounting!

These are costs that taxpayers would not have had to bear were it not for the fact that Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature have locked horns for 50 days.

Some examples? They start, according to state Controller Gray Davis, with the $6.1 million paid to date in interest on those notorious registered warrants--better known as IOUs--that have been used to cover the state’s bills pending resolution of the budget crisis. Add to that, according to state Treasurer Kathleen Brown, $20,000 for paid notices to the public about which warrants are eligible for redemption.

Another cost: The added per diem earned by legislators during July, when they normally would have been on summer break but instead remained in session to work on the budget. The daily cost now is $100 per legislator (though half the lawmakers have refused to accept an $8 increase approved earlier this year). Total per diem costs in July came to nearly $300,000. (Note: Per diem--or for that matter legislative salaries--can’t be paid until a budget is adopted.)

Looming in the months and years ahead are many millions of dollars in added interest costs on bonds. Since July 1--the constitutional deadline for passage of a state budget--two influential rating firms have dropped the state’s bond rating, thus increasing the amount that the state will have to pay in interest for bonds it sell.

It’s hard to say what the final tab will be for the budget impasse, or when a budget will be adopted. Assembly Democrats and even some Republicans still strongly disagree with Wilson over the education cuts that he backs.

Meanwhile, money that could have been spent for health, welfare, local government and schools is instead being spent on the costs of ineptitude.