*New ruling: State lawmakers will not be paid

California Controller John Chiang says that the budget package approved by the legislature last week - and then vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown - was "miscalculated, miscounted or unfinished," and that "the numbers simply did not add up." Which means that lawmakers will continue to forfeit their pay. Chiang's analysis found that the budget committed the state to $89.75 billion in spending, but only provided $87.9 billion in revenues, leaving an imbalance of $1.85 billion. From release:

The largest problem involved the guaranteed level of education funding under Proposition 98. The June 15 budget underfunded education by more than $1.3 billion. Underfunding is not possible without suspending Proposition 98, which would require a supermajority (2/3) vote of the Legislature. The budget also counted on $320 million in hospital fees, $103 million in taxes on managed-care plans, and $300 million in vehicle registration charges. However, the Legislature never passed the bills necessary to collect or spend those funds as part of the State budget.

Democrats have been ticked ever since Brown vetoed the budget - even though the package clearly contains the kind of sleight-of-hand gimmickry that will not resolve the chronic fiscal troubles. Next step will be up to the legislature, which still has a little over a week before the new fiscal year begins. Looks like it's time to get real. Here's the controller's analysis.

*Statement from Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez (via Capitol Alert):

"The Controller is, in effect, allowing Legislative Republicans to control the budget process and I believe that's a very unfortunate outcome that is inconsistent with the intent of Proposition 25," said Pérez, D-Los Angeles. "In the coming days, we will be taking additional budget action informed by the Controller's analysis, and consistent with the values of the budget we passed last week."