Yep I was away on vacation, but the beat goes on. So, California finally got a budget deal put together which will use some enormous cuts in government and education to close the 20-billion-dollar-plus shortfall. I guess the thinking was there was no other way out, but it’s really going to wallop the public school system.

Something I’ve wondered previously about is just how seriously all this slashing is being taken by the average person who isn’t involved with local government or the school systems. It seems we’ve become numb to it, thinking that it wouldn’t really affect us at all. Well, just yesterday I was at the ATM withdrawing some cash when I saw a message like this after logging into the system:

The State of California is using registered warrants instead of regular warrants or checks to make some of its payments, beginning July 2, 2009. Chase is supporting our personal, business and commercial customers by honoring these registered warrants similarly to checks not drawn on our bank; we will begin accepting the registered warrants for deposit on July 2, 2009 and stop accepting them no later than July 10, 2009.

This policy has been adopted by pretty much all the banks around here. It turns out that if you were owed money recently by the state, they probably sent you one of these registered warrant IOUs. But because they aren’t the standard variety of warrant, they cannot be paid until they mature like a CD or bond. That maturity date was October 2, 2009 as far as I’ve heard.

Now, it’s like these IOUs are worthless if they weren’t cashed before the bank deadlines. In addition, the state will be paying the interest accrued on top of the value of the warrant. However, you can’t get that money RIGHT NOW, which might prove to be more than just annoying for some people.

So I guess it’s true that this really is going to start affecting people who thought they were immune to the whole budget mess. No more crying wolf.

Incidentally, the affects of the weak Eeekconomy were on full display during our recent trip up the coast of California. I should probably save this for another post, but the amount of mom/pop and main street businesses that had shuttered their doors was just stunning. Granted, our trip took us through many smaller towns that rely heavily on tourism, so perhaps the effects were exaggerated. Still, it was eerie and a bit depressing to be driving through what was often a ghost town.

We don’t travel much, and live in a bigger city, so maybe we aren’t exposed to the true devastation of the recession. Perhaps it’s also the fact that it’s taken awhile for the effects to be truly widespread - after all things aren’t always instantaneous. Still it was kind of shocking to see it in every town we passed through.

Source: CNNnnnnnn