However, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vowed to veto the $104 billion budget, a move which state officials don't expect to happen until Friday, the same day as the Legislature is likely to hold a vote to override the veto.
Senate Pro Tem Don Perata issued a statement earlier this week in which he said a veto might be good for public relations but it's poor leadership, and will put Schwarzenegger "in the starring role in California's budget disaster."
Perata also called the budget a failure, but said the suffering the impasse was causing had to end. His office said the budget covers a $17 billion deficit with tough cuts and one-time revenue accelerations.
Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines of Fresno said the state fully funds education and includes a rainy day reserve fund, while not raising taxes or enacting an early release plan for prisoners.
Villines said Republicans opposed Schwarzenegger's plan to raise the state sales tax by $15 billion over three years and the $6.8 billion in tax increases on individuals and businesses that he said was pushed by Democrats.
Republicans took the action citing concerns that tax increases families would have killed jobs and devastated the state's economy, according to Villines' statement.
He said the compromise "leaves many tough decisions unresolved," and that the state must continue to work on its long-term budget problems.
State Sen. Patricia Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa), who represents Lake County in the Senate, called the deal "the budget nobody wanted" – but said it was the only budget they could must enough votes to pass at this time.
Wiggins attributed much of the budget problems to partisanship, saying that Schwarzenegger and Democrats wanted to pass a budget with enough money to pay for the services and programs that the state provides to its residents.
She blamed Republicans for the stalemate which was harming service providers and recipients, and businesses that contract with the state. Wiggins said legislators were forced to adopt a budget that "leaves us borrowing against future revenues for the next year and beyond."
Wiggins emphasized the need for real budget reform, and promised to introduce or work with other legislators on legislation to eliminate the two-thirds vote requirement to pass a budget, which she called "archaic and clearly malfunctioning."
"No other large state in this country operates under such a restriction, and neither should we," she said.
A look at local impacts
Kelly Cox, the county's chief administrative officer and budgeting guru, said the state budget is better than anticipated in some areas and about what he expected in others. Several programs will see 10-percent reductions, while others will be less.
"It's a mixed bag but overall the impact to our general fund will be very close to what we estimated in the budget the Board of Supervisors adopted last month," he said.
"On the downside, it looks like our Redevelopment Agency will be taking a hit of $158,000," Cox added. "This is a reduction we didn't anticipate so we'll have to make some adjustments in order to keep the agency's budget in balance. Fortunately, we should be able that without jeopardizing any of our current projects."
In addition to the impact on the county redevelopment agency, Cox said it appears Lakeport's agency will be hit by a $64,692 loss. No losses have been reported for Clearlake.
The California Redevelopment Association reports that the state took the redevelopment funds as part of a one-time shift of $350 million in Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund monies.
Cox, who led the effort to craft a balanced $201 million budget that supervisors approved last month well ahead of deadline, said the legislature didn't address the state budget's structural deficit, something they appear to be delaying for another year.
"Obviously, this concerns us because we could be hit very hard next year – or earlier if the state experiences a midyear revenue shortfall," he said.
Although the Regional Council of Rural Counties faults the budget for heavy reliance on internal borrowing from special funds and delayed payments to state-funded programs, it also pointed to some small victories for rural areas.
They include inclusion of Williamson Act funding; full funding of the $500,000-per-year, per-county rural sheriffs grants; and no forensic lab fee costs from the Department of Justice.
The budget also restores funds to the COPS and Juvenile Justice programs. COPS grants provide $100,000 a year each to Lakeport Police and Clearlake Police Departments, as Lake County News has reported.
Lakeport Police Chief Kevin Burke went to Sacramento this spring to lobby for maintaining the COPS grant, which he said in a previous interview is used to supplement city funds and supports one and a half police officer positions.
Clearlake Police Chief Allan McClain also told Lake County News this spring that one police officer position in his department is tied to the grant, with the rest of the money being used to pay for equipment purchases.
As part of the budget package, the legislature approved legislation that would keep the Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund functioning and restore to it a $30 million appropriation the governor cut last year, according to the Regional Council of Rural Counties.
In 2006-07, the county received just over $874,000 from the fund, as Lake County News has reported.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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