West Coast Deal

California has finally approved a state budget, making up a $42 billion shortfall through a state sales tax increase and spending cuts.

Senate leaders secured the final vote needed from moderate Republican Abel Maldonado in late-night negotiations by agreeing to his demands for election changes, government reform and removal of a gas tax increase, giving them the two-thirds vote needed to pass the package.

To win Maldonado's support, legislators also agreed to ask voters to revise the state's constitution to allow open primaries for legislative, congressional and gubernatorial elections.

You do what you have to do to get by, but the fact of the matter is I fully expect California to face another massive shortfall next year (people spend less, less sales taxes collected, plus housing prices dropping) and plenty of other states having this issue, most noteably New York state.

The stimulus will help offset some of this, but there's still going to be a lot of massive budget cuts in nearly all the states in 2009 and especially in 2010.