California is near "financial disaster," according to the WaPo. Needless to say, community and state colleges are going to be hard hit. The brave optimists who usually turn up in such dour articles are absent here:
Any day now, community colleges here may begin telling faculty members that they cannot be paid and students that summer classes are canceled. Nursing homes are losing so much state aid that many soon may have to shut down or limit their services, a prospect that has elderly residents confused and frightened. As many as 30,000 government workers who had been expecting pay raises in the fall are instead receiving formal notices warning that they could lose their jobs by then, because the state is broke...
The nation's most populous state, home to one of the world's largest economies, has been staring in disbelief at the same dire predicament for months: a $38 billion deficit, the largest shortfall in its history and an extreme example of the budget woes afflicting many states...
State lawmakers have until midnight to reach a compromise with Gov. Gray Davis (D) on a budget that would wipe out the enormous deficit, but the odds of that happening appear slim...
California's not the only state in trouble:
...lawmakers in New Jersey and California remained sharply divided late yesterday over how to close record budget deficits with only hours left until a midnight deadline for enacting budgets for the next fiscal year.
Negotiations between Republicans and Democrats in New Jersey were said to be progressing at midnight, but if no agreement was reached by this morning, New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey (D) was poised to order a shutdown of state government.
"Shutdown" in this case would mean that those working for the public safety, such as state police and prison employee, would have to remain on the job, but with no assurance that they would be paid.