California State Budget Passed… Finally

The California legislature pulled an all-nighter late last week to pass the state budget and solve a $19 billion deficit. The final votes occurred Friday morning since many votes throughout the night failed to gain the support of two-thirds of the legislature. The resulting budget is a reflection of the compromises made in order to meet the two-thirds threshold required. What did make it into the budget, however, is $52.5 billion for K-12 public education and community colleges, and a measure to go on the November 2012 ballot to strengthen the state’s rainy day fund and scale back pension benefits for new state employees.  It also appears that while this is good news for now, there were several “creative” fixes included, which means we will be facing similar deficit issues come January. Déjà vu much?