The state Constitution says the budget must be in place by the July 1 start of the new fiscal year. Davis signed his first two budgets on time. In recent years, legislators have grown used to the multibillion-dollar windfalls of tax payments, which allowed them to deliver new swimming pools, school programs, museums, parks, social and health care spending, and tax cuts to their constituents. In a Legislature populated by term-limited newcomers, only a handful of current legislators were in the Capitol in the early 1990s, when the worst recession to hit California since the Great Depression caused the state budget to actually shrink. Veterans of the annual summer rite say there is no template for the coming budget fights.
Legislators say they are lowering their sights.
But letters from state senators requesting money for their favored projects fill five large red binders. He won't reveal those decisions until he releases his revised spending plan.