Possible deal on state budget

Legislative leaders said today they at last have a compromise deal on an 11-week-late state budget that calls for no tax increases, no borrowing from local governments or other state special funds -- and which makes no one happy.Sacramento Bee.

Emerging from a weekend meeting in the office of Senate GOP leader Dave Cogdill, the quartet declined to give specific details of their compromise plan, saying they wanted to talk to their respective caucuses first.

But they said the plan closes the $15.2 billion gap in the $103.4 billion budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 with $9 billion in spending cuts. The rest of the gap will be patched by closing tax loopholes and "accelerated revenue collections," an accounting term for collecting some one-time revenues in this fiscal year rather than the next. The leaders indicated that while balanced, the budget anticipates at least a $2 billion hole in next year's budget.