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Inside Sacramento: California Budget Battle

The California budget is late... again. Why has it been nearly impossible for our lawmakers to pass a state budget on-time?

Inside Sacramento: California Budget Battle

Tom Fudge: June 15th came and went, and California has no state budget . Missing the deadline was no shocker, and it, alone, won't cause anyone to lose any sleep. But, the more you think about the budget gap in California today, the more likely you'll stay awake at night. The deficit is 15.2 billion dollars for 2008-2009. That's money for schools, state parks, Medi-Cal payments, road construction and repair, you name it. Nobody in the state is eager to say what services they're ready to do without. And, nobody in the state capitol seems ready to give us an honest, detailed plan of how to either raise taxes or cut services to solve the problem.

This year's abysmal financial situation has followed several years of accounting tricks and borrowing to paper over California's financial problems. Maybe the only good news, this year, is that the jig is up. Politicians have to find some solutions, and voters have to find the political will to accept them.

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