The Sacramento Bee's Capitol Alert has an annual budget pool contest. Guess the exact day and time the state legislature and Governor Schwarzenegger agree on a budget for 2009-10, and you win a prize!
You have until noon today to enter. Here's the information from the Capitol Alert website:
"So now we have a situation where we actually have a chance to have a budget five months before the constitutional deadline and that's what I'm shooting for," he said at the Sacramento Press Club last week.
There will be no tinkering around the edges in this contest. We're looking for the exact date and time both legislative houses have passed the 2009-10 budget bill - one ultimately signed by Schwarzenegger. Entries are due by 11:59 a.m. this Thursday.
It could come within a few days, or a week. Or lawmakers could pass a stopgap measure and hold off on tackling the whole enchilada until the summer months. Or the fall.
Your guess is as good as ours. Except with the possibility of a $25 gift card from Starbucks that we'll hand out to the winner.
Send in your guess to contest@capitolalert.com. Pick an exact day and time the budget will have passed through both houses of the Legislature. Include your full name. All entries must be sent in by 11:59 a.m. Thursday, February 5. (Click for the full legal rules.)
Also, Capitol Alert reports that California's $42 billion budget deficit, while by far the worst in the country in total dollars, is exceeded by several states, including two of our immediate neighbors, if you look at the deficit as a percent of general fund expenditures:
California's current shortfall has been pegged by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at $15-plus billion while the new NCSL study says all states are reporting a $47.4 billion problem. Schwarzenegger says the state faces another $25 billion deficit 2009-10 and NCSL says that, too, approaches a third of the national state budget deficit of $84.3 billion.
While California's projected 2009-10 deficit of 22.3 percent of general fund spending is among the nation's worst in proportionate terms, there are states facing more horrendous deficits, including Nevada at 37.6 percent, Arizona at 28.2 percent and New York at 24.3 percent.
This information comes from a report by the National Conference of State Legislatures, which you can read here.
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