California Budget Crisis

Since the onset of the recession that began in 2007, California's financial problems have grown as outsized as the state itself.

In October 2010, a record 100 days late, the Legislature passed a $126 billion budget that promised to close a $19 billion deficit. But by the next month, the departing governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, had called a special session of the Legislature for Dec. 6 to begin dealing with a projected $6 billion shortfall in the just-passed budget.

And state officials have predicted yet another shortfall, of $19 billion, in the budget for the next fiscal year. The incoming governor, Jerry Brown, must propose a new budget in January 2011.