78 Days and almost done: BUDGET COMPROMISE REACHES GOVERNOR'S DESK AFTER 78-DAY DELAY

ASSOCIATED PRESS WIRE - Tue, 16 Sep 2008 03:15 AM

●●smf 2¢: While the assembly and senate votes are technically 'veto-proof', it remains to seen whether the governator will veto - either outright or by line-item - and whether the legislature has the will and/or chutzpah to override.

After a 78-day delay, a state budget compromise has finally reached the desk of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger after it was passed by the California State Assembly early this morning.

The budget passed the assembly by a vote of 62-5 at about 2:15 a.m., according to the office of Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles. The state Senate had also passed the compromise by a 29-11 vote about two hours earlier.

"This isn't a budget we should be thrilled about, it's not the kind of budget we should have and it's not the kind of budget we will have," Bass said in a prepared statement. "But it ends the delay. It stops the pain. It allows the wheels of real reform to start moving."

(© 2007 The Associated Press.  In the interest of timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain occasional typographical errors. )