Hello,

For well over a decade, the Amazon Associates Program has worked with thousands of California residents. Unfortunately, a potential new law that may be signed by Governor Brown compels us to terminate this program for California-based participants. It specifically imposes the collection of taxes from consumers on sales by online retailers – including but not limited to those referred by California-based marketing affiliates like you – even if those retailers have no physical presence in the state.

We oppose this bill because it is unconstitutional and counterproductive. It is supported by big-box retailers, most of which are based outside California, that seek to harm the affiliate advertising programs of their competitors. Similar legislation in other states has led to job and income losses, and little, if any, new tax revenue. We deeply regret that we must take this action.

As a result, we will terminate contracts with all California residents that are participants in the Amazon Associates Program as of the date (if any) that the California law becomes effective. We will send a follow-up notice to you confirming the termination date if the California law is enacted. In the event that the California law does not become effective before September 30, 2011, we withdraw this notice. As of the termination date, California residents will no longer receive advertising fees for sales referred to Amazon.com [ http://www.amazon.com/ ], Endless.com [ http://www.endless.com/ ], MYHABIT.COM [ http://www.myhabit.com/ ] or SmallParts.com [ http://www.smallparts.com/ ]. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned on or before the termination date will be processed and paid in full in accordance with the regular payment schedule.

You are receiving this email because our records indicate that you are a resident of California. If you are not currently a resident of California, or if you are relocating to another state in the near future, you can manage the details of your Associates account here [ https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/network/your-account/payee-info.html ]. And if you relocate to another state in the near future please contact us [ https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/contact?subject=&ie=UTF8 ] for reinstatement into the Amazon Associates Program.

To avoid confusion, we would like to clarify that this development will only impact our ability to offer the Associates Program to California residents and will not affect their ability to purchase from Amazon.com [ http://www.amazon.com/ ], Endless.com [ http://www.endless.com/ ], MYHABIT.COM [ http://www.myhabit.com/ ] or SmallParts.com [ http://www.smallparts.com/ ].

We have enjoyed working with you and other California-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program and, if this situation is rectified, would very much welcome the opportunity to re-open our Associates Program to California residents. We are also working on alternative ways to help California residents monetize their websites and we will be sure to contact you when these become available.

Regards,

The Amazon Associates Team

The government is a group of people that aggressively extorts money from a defenseless and largely disarmed majority. They use it to protect and cement the privileged position of established and campaign-financing organizations who fear competition from those annoying, small, and dynamic entrepreneurs who push down prices.

In the process it always cripples commerce to one degree or another. So long as the tax livestock remains productive and obedient, such occurrences can be shrugged off as regrettable but “necessary” collateral damage.

I submit the letter above as yet another piece of evidence in the long list of items that corroborate this thesis.

Related posts:

1. California Legistlature Seeks to Introduce Internet Tax
2. Amazon & Overstock Drop Illinois Affiliates to Avoid Recently Passed Internet Tax
3. California Refuses its Own IOUs

California Governor Jerry Brown said he’s willing to gather signatures for a voter initiative to extend $11 billion in expiring tax increases, blocked by Republican lawmakers, in order to balance the state’s budget.

Brown, speaking in Los Angeles yesterday, said he may bypass the Legislature and go through the ballot measure process to put the issue to a statewide vote, though he’d prefer that lawmakers act.

“We are going to put it before the people one way or another,” the 73-year-old Democrat said in an interview. When asked if it might be placed on the ballot as soon as November, he nodded.

As always, the solutions that politicians have to shortfalls and deficits at some point are tax hikes. California is already one of the most taxed and regulated state in the US.

Brown got huge support from teachers’ unions and other unions in general during the election. Here’s the inevitable payback:

Unions such as the California Federation of Teachers have indicated they may gather signatures to put a measure on a statewide ballot seeking higher taxes on the wealthy.

Brown got a standing ovation yesterday at the California State Parent Teacher Association’s convention in Long Beach when he said he would not support reduced spending on schools.
‘You’ve Got a Friend’

“I want you to know you’ve got a friend, an ally and a partner as we go forward together,” he said.

Leaving the podium, he held up a sign he was handed that read, “Cuts Hurt Kids.”

Like I said before, I applaud unions across the nation to do everything they can to turn off this young generation and self-destruct over the long run.

Related posts:

1. California – Ready, Set, IOU!
2. California Budget – Schwarzenegger Cuts Another $500 Million
3. Geithner Asks Congress to Raise Debt Limit

Other state pensions are in a similarly bad shape. The choices for them will be one of the following, or a combination: raise taxes, cut “services”, lower pension payouts, or raise pension contributions.

As far as I know the only one who has actually started confronting public sector unions, teachers, and the like is governor Christie of New Jersey. I doubt he’ll succeed in the long run, but it’s interesting to see someone try.

Of course a good sign that he is taking steps in the right direction is that Paul Krugman, who is of course as always incapable of predicting any government induced crises in time, has nothing better to do but to bitch about governor Christie’s cancellation of a tunnel project.

Yes, this is not a joke. There are state governments passing budgets on one junket after another, making outlandish pension promises, putting future taxpayers on the hook for billions upon billions of dollars, paying public union workers outrageous wages, and Krugan’s really big concern is the cancellation of a tunnel project … he never fails to amaze me! :))

Related posts:

1. California Pension Tsunami – Biggest Plans Lost Almost $100 Billion in ‘09
2. NY Municipalities Borrow Money from Pension Fund in Order to Contribute … to That Pension Fund
3. State Pension Plans Continue to Implode

Here’s the article:

For decades, illegal marijuana cultivation has been an economic lifeblood for three counties in northern California known as the Emerald Triangle.

The war on drugs and frequent raids by federal drug agents have helped support the local economy — keeping prices for street sales of pot high and keeping profits rich.

But high times are changing. Legal pot, under the guise of the California’s medical marijuana laws, has spurred a rush of new competition. As a result, the wholesale price of pot grown in these areas is plunging.

Demand Not Meeting Supply

In 1983, the Reagan administration launched a massive air and ground campaign to eradicate pot and lock up growers in northern California. Charley Custer, a writer and community activist, had just arrived to Humboldt County from Chicago. With the Reagan crackdown, Custer recalls, wholesale prices shot up — to as high as $5,000 a pound. That sudden and ironic windfall for those growers willing to risk prison time transformed the community.

“A lot of people were living on welfare and peanut butter and banana sandwiches for a long time before pot made it possible to be part of the middle class,” Custer says.

Nearly 30 years later, Custer says that boom may be over.

“Outdoor growers are having a hard time unloading their fall harvest,” Custer says. “And this is six months later and when some people do move it, they don’t get nearly the price they were hoping for.”

That goes for both legal growers who cultivate limited quantities of pot under the medical marijuana laws and illegal operators who often grow larger amounts.

Prices are now much less than $2,000 a pound, according to interviews with more than a dozen growers and dealers. Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman says some growers can’t get rid of their processed pot at any price.

“We arrested a man who had … 800 pounds of processed,” Allman says. “Eight hundred pounds of processed. And we asked him: ‘What are you going to do with 800 pounds of processed?’ And he said, ‘I don’t know.’”

‘Only The Good Ones Make It’

As recently as last December, things were still pretty upbeat. At Area 101, an events and healing center near Laytonville, local growers gathered to celebrate the Emerald Cup, an annual competition for the season’s best pot buds. But the event’s host, Tim Blake, says the mood has darkened since then.

“There’s a tremendous amount of concern, borderlining on fear,” says the former underground grower who now cultivates medical marijuana.

He says the drop in pot prices is in part the result of more growers and a more tolerant legal landscape. But he says another factor is quality. Indoor-grown marijuana is increasingly favored by dispensaries and consumers for its looks, consistence and potency. It costs more to produce than pot grown under the sun, but commands as much as double the price. That’s one reason retail prices haven’t hit the skids.

“What’s happening is the people that don’t have quality product aren’t selling it,” Blake says. “So they’re the ones that are creating this panic. So it really comes back down to that, just like in every other agricultural industry. When you get too many vineyards and too many people growing vines out there, then only the good ones make it.”

Matt Cohen is one of those growers who are making it. On an organic farm near Ukiah, Cohen raises chickens, grows vegetables and cultivates high-grade medical pot. He has avoided the downturn by distributing marijuana directly to patients. But other growers who rely on middlemen and dealers for legal and illegal sales are in financial trouble.

“And I know people, and they’re living from credit card to credit card,” Cohen says. “They’re not even making money. It’s just a lifestyle that they’re in and the alternative is to go do what?”

Instability And Anxiety

In recent weeks the upheaval has spurred a series of unprecedented public forums about where things are headed for the marijuana industry, especially if Californians vote to legalize pot this fall.

“The displacement of persons deriving supplemental income through clipping, gardening and distribution of marijuana dwarfs the number of growers who will lose their income entirely,” says local activist Anna Hamilton, who organized a gathering in Garberville. She says the broader community is already feeling the ripple effects of falling pot prices.

“There are business foreclosures, storefronts closing. There’s a lot of instability and anxiety,” she says.

Still, amid the turmoil, Custer says some locals haven’t lost their sense of humor. He recalls a recent musical revue where three performers in miniskirts, sunglasses and spiky heels mocked the plight of local pot growers all to the beat of the ’60s hit “My Boyfriend’s Back.”

“‘My dealer’s back and I’m gonna get ready/Hey now, hey now, my dealer’s back,’” Custer sings. “It was a song of hope in this hopeless situation. ‘It’ll happen to you. Your dealer will come back.’”

Or maybe not. California’s pot economy is transforming, and it’s starting to resemble a real commodities market where only big players can compete. It’s a shift that could leave some growers in the dust.

What’s interesting about this story is this: Prices are crashing as a a result of the potential legalization of marijuana in the Golden State. This is hurting a lot of sub-par quality sellers.

This goes to show us once again: The war on drugs and government meddling in the business helps nobody more than the guys who produce and sell drugs.

Once the state withdraws, the market becomes open, more competitive, subject to more scrutiny, less subject to gray areas, and thus prices come down. As a result, the return on investment in getting people hooked on drugs via free samples declines, so that fewer and fewer people will fall into the trap of drug addiction and drug abuse.

Related posts:

1. Annual Drug Related Deaths in the US – Marijuana Ranks Last … With ZERO
2. Pat Robertson: “Thou Shalt Smoke Up in Peace”
3. Meth and Other Drug War Facts

The camera focuses on an official of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), California’s largest public-employee union, sitting in a legislative chamber and speaking into a microphone. “We helped to get you into office, and we got a good memory,” she says matter-of-factly to the elected officials outside the shot. “Come November, if you don’t back our program, we’ll get you out of office.’

The video has become a sensation among California taxpayer groups for its vivid depiction of the audacious power that public-sector unions wield in their state. The unions’ political triumphs have molded a California in which government workers thrive at the expense of a struggling private sector. The state’s public school teachers are the highest-paid in the nation. Its prison guards can easily earn six-figure salaries. State workers routinely retire at 55 with pensions higher than their base pay for most of their working life. Meanwhile, what was once the most prosperous state now suffers from an unemployment rate far steeper than the nation’s and a flood of firms and jobs escaping high taxes and stifling regulations. This toxic combination—high public-sector employee costs and sagging economic fortunes—has produced recurring budget crises in Sacramento and in virtually every municipality in the state.

This is the clip mentioned above:

This video is actually a rather mild and open form of union threat I would say. If anybody seriously thinks the legislature is not going to bow down to this vicious mob, they should ask themselves what they would do when faced with this choice:

“Hmmm, should I take the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in campaign contributions, honorary chairmanships, and kickbacks in backroom deals, or would I prefer to get myself and my family blown up in a car? Such a tough choice …”

This is what you get when you believe that anything good can ever come out of the government, a.k.a organized aggression.

Related posts:

1. What Happens to a Union Leader Who Openly Prays for Another Man’s Death? Nothing!
2. California Voters Smack Down Fiscal Nonsense
3. California – Ready, Set, IOU!

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is ticked off.

He’s tired of signing bills that don’t address the pet causes he deems important. So when another unworthy bill crossed his desk recently for signing — addressing funding issues for the Port of San Francisco — the guv vetoed it and sent lawmakers a little note saying why. Only the note said a little more than lawmakers were expecting.

Buried in the text was a hidden message directed at State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, author of the bill, according to the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Ammiano had strongly criticized the governor in early October and reportedly told Schwarzenegger at the time to “kiss my gay ass.” Schwarzenegger’s veto letter, issued a couple of days later, reads:

Missed the hidden code? The Bay Guardian has helpfully picked it out:

When asked by the Guardian if the message was intentional, Schwarzenegger’s spokesman said only, “what a strange coincidence.” The paper noted that he was “clearly being sarcastic.”

… water reform, prison reform, and health care are indeed the major issues that California representatives should be dealing with before even considering for a second any more hideous spending programs with no end in sight.

I understand the Governor’s frustration and do realize that this message is obviously and intentional note of frustration and rebuke.

Related posts:

1. Schwarzenegger Plays Hardball with California Legislature
2. California Budget – Schwarzenegger Cuts Another $500 Million
3. California Budget Showdown – Schwarzenegger Courageously Holds the Line

Small businesses that received $682 million in IOUs from the state say California expects them to pay taxes on the worthless scraps of paper, but refuses to accept its own IOUs to pay debts or taxes. The vendors’ federal class action claims the state is trying to balance its budget on their backs.

Lead plaintiff Nancy Baird filled her contract with California to provide embroidered polo shirts to a youth camp run by the National Guard, but never was paid the $27,000 she was owed. She says California “paid” her with an IOU that two banks refused to accept – yet she had to pay California sales tax on the so-called “sale” of the uniforms.

The class consists mostly of small business owners, many of whom rely on income from government contracts to keep afloat. They say California has used them as “suckers” as it looks for a way to bankroll its operations while avoiding its own financial obligations.

“Instead of seeking funds through proper channels, the State has created a nightmare,” the class says. “Many of these businesses will not survive if they are required to wait until October 2009 to have these forced IOUs redeemed by the State.”

The class claims the state is violating the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. It demands that California be ordered to honor its own IOUs, plus interest. They are represented by William Audet.

…time to flood the FTB with IOUs. Let them issue a public explanation as to why they do not want to accept the state’s own IOUs.

Related posts:

1. California Controller Considers Paying in IOUs
2. California Budget Shortfall May Hit 28 Billion; Expect More Gridlock and IOUs
3. California – First IOUs going out

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday signed a budget plan sent to him by lawmakers to close the state’s monumental deficit, using his veto pen to impose nearly $500 million in additional cuts.

The new reductions will affect child welfare and children’s healthcare, the elderly, state parks and AIDS treatment and prevention, going beyond the dramatic cuts that were part of the deal Schwarzenegger negotiated with legislative leaders.

Democratic leaders in the Assembly and Senate reacted angrily to his use of the line-item veto, disputing the Republican governor’s authority to wield that power in this situation and portraying him as callous.

Schwarzenegger’s aides said the cuts were proper, and the governor said they were necessary.

“This has been a very tough budget, probably the toughest since I have been in office here in Sacramento,” Schwarzenegger said. “This budget is kind of like the good, the bad and the ugly.”

The good, the governor said, is that the plan does not raise taxes and includes changes he says will make government more efficient, such as reorganizing and abolishing some boards and commissions.

The bad are the deep cuts to state programs that will touch millions of Californians, particularly its most vulnerable citizens, he said.

The ugly, Schwarzenegger added, are the new reductions he made because lawmakers left town after failing to fully close the state’s deficit.

The Assembly on Friday capped a 20-hour session by rejecting provisions worth $1.1 billion that had been agreed to by the governor and legislative leaders.

The extra cuts the governor made Tuesday — $489 million — took nearly $80 million that pays for workers who help abused and neglected children; $50 million from Healthy Families, which provides healthcare to children in low-income families; $50 million from services for developmentally delayed children under age 3; $16 million from domestic-violence programs; and $6.3 million from services for the elderly. Among other reductions was $6.2 million more from parks, which could result in the closure of 100, rather than 50, of California’s 279 state parks.

In addition, Schwarzenegger effectively gutted a program that provides local governments with funding to encourage property owners to preserve open space and to use land for agriculture.

Ted Lempert, president of Children Now, an advocacy group, called the cut to Healthy Families “particularly galling.” He said a coalition, including his group, is spearheading a campaign to put a universal children’s healthcare measure on the fall 2010 ballot.

“A struggling family puts their kids first,” Lempert said. “What the governor and what the state has done is the opposite.”

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) and Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), in questioning the legality of Schwarzenegger’s moves, suggested that the governor’s veto power can be used only on original appropriations. The new spending plan is a revision of a budget Schwarzenegger and lawmakers ratified in February.

Both leaders said they would attempt to restore the cuts when they return from recess, in mid-August, and Bass said she would seek an opinion from the Legislature’s legal office.

In a long and harsh statement to the media, Bass called the governor “so eager to tear down the safety net that he appears willing to break the law to do it.” She faulted Schwarzenegger for rejecting taxes that Democrats proposed on “big oil and big tobacco” and instead attacking “the sick, the young, the elderly and battered women.”

In response, Schwarzenegger’s aides said Bass and the Assembly had forced his hand.

“The governor understands how difficult these cuts are,” said his spokesman, Aaron McLear. “But because the speaker sent him an unbalanced budget, he had no choice but to make these cuts.”

Assembly lawmakers turned down a plan to seize $1 billion in gas tax money that belongs to local governments and rejected a new offshore oil drilling project that could have produced $100 million in royalties.

The Senate approved the entire budget deal, including those measures, early Friday morning.

By killing the two proposals, lawmakers wiped out a reserve fund the governor has insisted upon to cushion future shortfalls. His aides said the cuts announced Tuesday would allow the state to put aside $500 million.

Even as he signed the plan, Schwarzenegger warned that the state’s troubles were not over. Finance officials are already predicting future deficits, and the governor said he was ready, “if our revenues drop further, to make the necessary cuts and live within our means.”

Overall, the new budget is expected to fundamentally alter life for many Californians, with reductions to K-12 education, state colleges and universities, healthcare and public assistance for the elderly and the poor.

It appropriates billions of dollars from local governments, which could force cities and counties to further reduce their own spending on roads, law enforcement and other services.

The package was approved to address a deficit that administration officials previously projected at $26.3 billion. Schwarzenegger’s aides now say that, although the budget plan contains $24 billion in solutions, it will close the entire shortfall because of changing revenue forecasts, a recalibration of education funding formulas and a decision to reduce the reserve fund.

The plan’s cuts, accounting maneuvers and other measures should soon enable California to resume paying all of its bills again. From July 2 until the end of the day Monday, the state had issued 209,219 IOUs worth $1.09 billion, according to Garin Casaleggio of the state controller’s office.

The state’s credit rating has declined to nearly junk status after two months during which elected officials could not agree on how to resolve the crisis.

I agree that the budget is a lot like the good, the bad, and the ugly. But in a different way:

The good: No more taxes for now.
The bad: No tax cuts.
The ugly: The tax hikes that will follow sooner or later if the budget is not slashed further.

Related posts:

1. California Budget Showdown – Schwarzenegger Courageously Holds the Line
2. California Budget Deal Reached
3. Schwarzenegger Plays Hardball with California Legislature

From Watch List reader, Alan X. Reay, founder and president of Atlas Hospitality Group in Irvine, CA, comes this astounding statistic. The number of California hotels in default or foreclosed on has jumped 125% in the last 60 days. The state now has 31 hotels that have been foreclosed on and 175 in default.

With 19.6% of the total, San Bernardino County leads the state in foreclosed hotels. Riverside County follows with 16.1% and San Diego County has 12.9%. Los Angeles County, with 12% of the total, has the most hotels in default. San Bernardino County is next with 9.7% and San Diego County follows with 8%, according to Atlas Hospitality.

“Initially, the wave of distress in California was seen by the smaller, non-flagged hotels in secondary and tertiary markets,” Reay said. “As the hotel economy worsened, we have seen it impact all property types. The properties range from the luxurious St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort (pictured) in Dana Point to the more economical Extended Stay and Red Roof Inn chains. No market or brand is immune in this downturn.”

Non?franchised hotels account for a disproportionate number of foreclosures. They make up about 87% of the total. However, franchised hotels make up 59% of the defaulted properties.

“In reviewing the hotels in default or foreclosed on, we found that over 75% of the loans originated from 2005 to 2007. During this period, over 2,500 California hotels either refinanced or obtained new purchase loan financing,” Reay added. “Unfortunately, based on today’s market values, we estimate that none of these hotels have any equity remaining. The unprecedented decline in room revenues (California is down 21.5% year-to-date) combined with the jump in cap rates has resulted in a massive loss in values. We estimate that values are currently 50 to 80% lower than at the market’s peak in 2006-2007.”

This is a wave that is only just beginning to unravel. Commercial property crunchtime, along with the end of comsumerism, will render many hotels useless and leave their owners with mountains of debt with no equity to cover it.

Related posts:

1. Foreclosures Soar at Record Pace, Up 33% from 1 Year Ago
2. Jobless Claims, Foreclosures & Retail Sales – A Triple Whammy
3. Insiders Sell Shares at Record Pace

State lawmakers on Thursday evening were preparing to vote on a proposal to close a $26 billion budget deficit, but the plan likely will be a stopgap that passes the state’s financial woes on to the next year and the next governor.

The state will probably amass an additional shortfall of as much as $10 billion during this fiscal year, economists say, calling revenue projections for the proposed budget too optimistic. And the financial woes will likely persist for at least the next several years. Though lawmakers are cutting $16 billion in spending, they are closing the remaining $10 billion gap with borrowing, accounting gimmicks and asset sales that will be impossible or difficult to replicate in the future.

“The state has just once again failed to address its underlying problem,” said Bill Watkins, executive director of the California Lutheran University’s Center for Economic Research and Forecasting. “They do some of the hard choices they have to, and they essentially have to pass on part of the problem for later.”

The budget mess is already taking center stage in the race to succeed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who must leave office after the November 2010 election because of term limits. “It’s the issue that transcends all other issues,” San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, a Democratic candidate, said in an interview Thursday. “You can’t talk about issues in health care, education and infrastructure improvement until you focus on the issue of these structural imbalances in the budget.” Mr. Newsom blasted the spending plan for taking $4.7 billion from local governments, saying the governor should have been open to new taxes on tobacco and oil extraction instead.

My comment: If you are thinking about voting for Gavin Newsom for next governor, think again. Keep this statement of his in mind. He may be personable and nice, I know that … he’s my mayor. But he has it exactly backwards. He is seriously considering to continue raising taxes on Californians.

Republican contenders such as Meg Whitman, the former eBay Inc. chief executive, condemned the budget as well. “As painful flaws begin to appear in this agreement, Californians should demand strong leadership focused on job growth, fiscal restraint and the effective management of our state,” she said in a statement earlier this week. Through a representative, Ms. Whitman declined to be interviewed.

Steve Poizner, a Republican gubernatorial candidate and the state’s elected insurance commissioner, said he gives the budget compromise a C-minus because it contains too few overhauls and pushes the fiscal problems to future years. “We’re going to go from one budget issue to another until we get a couple of basic reforms that are going to turn the state around,” he said. “I’m advocating modernization and overhaul.”

Former U.S. Rep. Tom Campbell, a Republican candidate who has served as the state’s finance director, didn’t return calls for comment.

Even California legislative leaders who negotiated the budget pact acknowledge they will probably have to revisit the spending plan by January to close a new shortfall.

They already are spoiling for another fight along party lines over taxes and spending cuts. “My clear message after tonight is that we have cut enough,” said Senate President Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat. “When you see people writing about the California dream and is it still real, I think that is a reflection of very common feelings that public services, education, transportation, public safety matter to the quality of life in California.”

My comment: Ah yes, those good old values that made California the great state it once was. The values that made innovative entrepreneurs and pilgrims come here to start a new life, dreaming of government service, paying taxes, teaching, train dispatchers, and policework. – The extent to which these state legislators are out of touch is truly staggering.

Republicans, meanwhile, vow to fight new taxes. Almost every GOP state legislator has signed an antitax pledge, though six of them in February broke party lines to approve a plan to close a then-$42 billion shortfall through tax increases and deep cuts. Minority Republicans can hold up budget deals because California requires a two-thirds vote to pass spending plans.

Legislative leaders, who negotiated the budget deal with the governor, have defended the use of one-time fixes in the current budget. Mr. Steinberg said the temporary solutions come in lieu of more spending cuts that would have hurt the poorest Californians. Assembly Minority Leader Sam Blakeslee said the state’s revenue drop amid the recession is historically large, and the fixes are meant to keep California afloat until better times.

Economic forecasters still aren’t sure when that will be. Mr.Watkins said his forecast shows the state won’t show signs of economic growth until early 2011. That’s much more pessimistic than the projection used for the current budget pact. “They’re using old data,” Mr. Watkins said of state finance officials, “and so the revenues will disappoint.”

… which will ensure that the California budget saga is bound to continue.

Related posts:

1. California Budget Shortfall May Hit 28 Billion; Expect More Gridlock and IOUs
2. California Budget Deal Reached
3. California Budget – Schwarzenegger Cuts Another $500 Million