What's wrong with budget

Well, lots - and we're not even looking at the fine print.

--More accounting tricks: Shifting a month of the state payroll into the 2010-11 fiscal year is the kind of chicanery that the CFOs of public companies sometimes resort to as a way of pumping up earnings. "Were California a corporation, rather than a state, its officers would be playing tiddlywinks with Bernie Madoff in the federal slammer," writes Dan Walters in the Sacto Bee.

--Questionable assumptions: The budget package is based on a revenue estimate of around $86 billion, which some folks consider too high by $6 billion or more. Already, the state's estimates have fallen short, resulting in higher deficits.

--Sluggish recovery: The economy might not grow to any noticeable extent for another two years, which means that operating expenses could continue to outpace tax receipts.

--System still dysfunctional: Until the basic structure of state governance is fixed (eliminating the two-thirds requirement to pass a budget, eliminating term limits, controlling the initiative process, etc.), California will continue to face these horrendous deadlocks.

--Education: You can't cut billions of dollars in school funding and not expect to see a significant decline in the quality of the workforce down the road. Of course, that's a long-term problem the current crowd in Sacramento will hand over to others.

--Collapse of social network: Just because you decimate health programs doesn't mean people won't get sick. It only means more of them will wind up in hospital emergency rooms - and guess who picks up the tab?

--Still no urgency: As we've said over and over, the real losers are the poor, the sick and the elderly. Other folks will be spared much of the calamity, which makes them far less likely to vote for necessary change come election time.

One more thing: The legislature still has to pass this thing.