Budget deal is done

They figured out how to close California's $26.3-billion deficit - but it's not going to be pretty. As expected, poor people, old people and school-age people will be hardest hit. From the LAT:

Tens of thousands of seniors and children would lose access to healthcare, local governments would sacrifice several billion dollars in state assistance this year and thousands of convicted criminals could serve less time in state prison. Welfare checks would go to fewer residents, state workers would be forced to continue to take unpaid days off and new drilling for oil would be permitted off the Santa Barbara coast.

The agreement, which could go before the full legislature later this week, does not include any broad-based tax increases.
Instead, it relies instead on deep cuts in government services, borrowing and accounting maneuvers. That sounds like a victory for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Republican lawmakers.

Education would also lose billions of dollars, although the deal skirts suspension of voter-approved funding formulas. Schools are expected to have to increase the number of students in classes, lay off teachers and scale back their offerings. Education lobbyists won a provision that requires the state to ultimately pay back money it is cutting, but districts are struggling now. Fees at the state's universities were already raised in anticipation of the deal. The number of students admitted would be reduced by thousands. And university employees are facing unpaid furloughs.

You do have to wonder how this saga would have played out without term limits and the two-thirds vote requirement to pass the budget.