State budget...kicking the can down the alley

Throughout the state's record-setting budget impasse, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger often said his goal was to bring structural reform to California so elected officials don't simply keep "kicking the can down the alley." AP in the Daily News.

They kicked the can anyway.

After three months of debate over tax increases, elected officials this year are resorting to accounting tricks and cuts to health care and education to fill the state's $15.2 billion shortfall. The result means partisan fighting will resume in January when the governor unveils the 2009-10 budget.