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Thursday will Mark the Longest California has been without a Legislature-Approved Budget
California is facing a $19 billion deficit and if tomorrow, 78 days after the budget should have been passed, comes without the state legislature passing a budget, records will be broken. Unlike last year, the drama hasn't played out in the public yet. Perhaps that's because the effects of having no budget really hasn't hit home yet.
"State finance officials are able to keep paying most of the bills, and many businesses that rely on state funding have found loans or other ways to work through what have become almost yearly problems," explained the Associated Press. "But that could change, beginning in October when available tax funds will diminish. To preserve cash, the state already has deferred billions in payments to schools and counties, delayed grants to about 65,000 low-income community college students and put off paying vendors that provide services and products to the state."
One regional example was shown in a live report on ABC7 this afternoon. A Caltrans project on an Inland Empire freeway, which has been causing massive traffic, may be severely delayed when workers stop receiving paychecks.
The latest a budget has been signed into law by a Governor was September 23rd.
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