Who's paying the price for the state budget mess? Not lawmakers

So the budget's safely signed and the state's long-idled bill-paying machinery is grinding into gear. Think vendors slowly going bankrupt during the California budget crisis are at the head of the line to get paid? Guess again. The Times' Patrick McGreevy has the details

Do California lawmakers face any sanctions for a budget that was 81 days late?

On the contrary. Today, legislators each received a state check for at least $19,700, before taxes -- back pay for those two months their salaries were withheld thanks to a state law that freezes legislators’ pay until a budget is approved.

Others in the state haven't been so lucky. Though the state controller issued $862 million in overdue Medi-Cal payments to health providers, many of whom had to take out loans to bridge the funding gap, other vendors owed by the state might not get paid for up to 15 days.

Why? Payments to vendors and payments to lawmakers are on two different systems. Legislators get their checks automatically. Vendors must submit claims for payment, and the controller's office has up to 15 days to act on those, though its goal is to cut a check in seven to 10 days.

The timing of the payments bothers Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn.

"The lawmakers should probably be standing at the end of the line to get paid after everyone else," Vosburgh said.

Even if lawmakers wanted to delay their checks so others could get paid first, how long do think it would take them to agree on the details?

--Veronique de Turenne

Photo: Los Angeles Times

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