The Red Monkey

It may not feel like it, but today marks the end of another year.

A fiscal year, that is. For the 19th time in the last 25 years, California will enter the 2010-11 year tomorrow with no budget.

Despite not having a spending plan in place, courts have determined that the state can still maintain various functions. Those include paying off debt, providing about two-thirds of K-12 school funding and sending out SSI/SSP grants to low-income disabled and elderly people.

California, however, will withhold payments to community colleges, local governments and state vendors tomorrow, according to Controller John Chiang. The state also will withhold salary and per diem for lawmakers and their aides.

Chiang and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are battling over whether to issue minimum-wage checks to state workers and withhold their remaining salary, starting in July, as long as there is no budget. Chiang has said it is infeasible to do so, while Schwarzenegger has suggested he will request minimum-wage pay without a budget. Colleague Jon Ortiz outlined the potential scenarios here. A state appellate court is expected to rule on the matter any day.

The Republican governor will meet tonight in a Sacramento closed-door session with Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez, D-Los Angeles, to discuss where things stand.