Before the ink is, well, even there, local governments are preparing to sue to block the borrowing of $4 Billion from municipal budgets.

Local governments across California are preparing to sue the state over a budget plan that would divert about $4 billion from their coffers next year. The association of city governments labeled the plan a “reckless Ponzi scheme” that will stall redevelopment projects, cut construction jobs and slash money for roadwork.

“It’s once again the state balancing its budget on the back of local government,” Alameda County Administrator Susan Muranishi said after supervisors there voted Tuesday to back a lawsuit against the state.

Their counterparts in Los Angeles passed a similar motion and local government groups have also pledged lawsuits, including the California Redevelopment Association, which in April won a legal challenge it filed last year against the state’s attempt to tap $350 million in redevelopment funds. The case is on appeal.

(SF Chronicle 7/22/09)

The proposed deal already faces the “shock” of the prison intrigue before it even happens. And then if it gets done, likely with the bulk of the votes coming from Democrats, you have a small but significant chance that a large chunk of their budget “solutions” get struck down in the courts.

To say this budget revision is a house of cards is an understatement, to say the least. Once this passes and the Republicans use the prison issue to put the consequences of this budget squarely in the lap of the Democrats, voters are going to again see another budget collapse.  The odds of it lasting are slim, and to pretend that we are “done” is either naive or reckless.