* $16B in cuts, except that six $B of that is really just borrowing from the school budget and must be paid back eventually, to the tune of $11B
* $2B in revenues legally belonging to municipalities diverted to state coffers, also to be repaid with some unspecified level of interest -- This isn't the first; if I were a mayor I wouldn't be holding my breath.
* $4B by accellerating withholdings by 10%, temporarily increased taxes that get paid back later come tax-time. Except: by the time you're getting your refund you've already gotten zapped with the latest withholdings. This's the slimiest it's-not-a-tax tax I've ever heard of.
* $1.5B of robbing Peter to pay Paul (at the state level: the municipal level's already been robbed)
* Moving a payday out from this calendar year into next year so that the state workers lose the float on the money and so the payment doesn't have to be calculated in this year's payouts.
* Other unspecified gimmicks.
So while claiming, to great fanfare, that they've finally fixed the problem, California's politicos have done what they've always done: kicked the can down the road so their mess will be Somebody Else's Problem. You know the old joke that you can tell a politician is lying if his lips are moving? Our current
