So, we think we have a budget deal. Again. Eighty-one days late, the state Legislature today will ratify the latest compromise. The agreement is said to respond to the governor’s demand for a rainy-day reserve and to his opposition to a half-baked scheme to advance income tax withholding.

With or without these improvements, Californians already know this budget is held together with accounting gimmicks that once again borrow against future revenues. One more time, Sacramento has pushed the problem into future years – and made it worse.

This is what happens when conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats are granted veto power over the ideas from the other side. In effect, no one is in charge.

Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, the Santa Rosa Democrat, told Staff Writer Guy Kovner that the last version of the budget made no sense, and then she proceeded to vote for it.

We call it state government, but in truth, California has no government when it comes to managing the state’s finances.