State budget reform stalls

As negotiations ramp up over Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed $146 billion state budget, some fear that reforms designed to avert a repeat of the financial meltdown California faced after the dot-com bust have been abandoned, Sacramento bureau staff writer Harrison Sheppard reports in today's Daily News.
While many note the economy is stronger now than it was five years ago, when the tech collapse sucked billions out of state coffers, analysts say ignoring budget reform leaves California vulnerable to another downturn.
"The window of opportunity to reform the budget process was wide open when the budgets were continually late and very acrimonious," said Tim Hodson, executive director of the Center for California Studies at California State University, Sacramento.
"We've had two years of relatively on-time budgets and relatively collegial budget-making. That has taken the urgency away and closed the window."