On Dec. 1, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency and called lawmakers into a special budget session. Schwarzenegger warned that California was in danger of running out of daily operating funds within two months. The special session will force the new Legislature to immediately address the state’s $11.2 billion budget deficit. The governor’s declaration came just days after a previous special session with the outgoing Legislature, which failed to produce a compromise. According to the Associated Press, unless budget corrections are made quickly, the state is likely to run out of cash in February, widening the revenue gap to $28 billion over the next 19 months.
This article appears in Dec 4-11, 2008.