From the Sacramento Bee, I learn that California’s Legislative Analysis Office is projecting that California state government will have to borrow $20 billion at the beginning of its fiscal year in July in order to pay day-to-day bills. Evidently some such borrowing, in the form of revenue anticipation notes, is standard operating procedure for an entity that has to pay out money more or less constantly but tends to collect it in big hunks at tax deadlines.

But the amount here is extraordinary; only a month ago the cash needed was projected at $13 billion. Plus, the LAO argues that if the six ballot propositions are defeated on May 19, the state will need to borrow “well over $20 billion.” The ballot propositions, supported by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and most public employee unions (and Democratic state legislators, who follow the public employee unions’ bidding faithfully), are a package of tax increases disguised as spending cuts (well, there are some spending limits included).