The state controller has just made plain that he'll start paying California's bills with IOUs next Thursday if the legislature and governor don't agree on how to fix the $24 billion budget shortfall by then. (This is bad, but not as bad for those receiving the IOUs as it seems. The IOUs must be paid back with 5 percent interest. Your blogger is thinking of asking his bosses at the New America Foundation to pay him in IOUs. How 'bout it, Mr. Coll?).

With the state on the brink, it's not clear how this movie ends. One new narrative was offered by Republican GOP contender Tom Campbell, a former director of finance for the state, during a talk at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

According to Joel Fox's report in Fox & Hounds Daily, Campbell suggested a federal judge could end up with huge control over state finances.

Fox reports: "Campbell painted a dark picture of what might happen if the state runs out of cash in July. He told the Chamber audience a likely scenario is that a federal judge might intervene to demand California pay its bills.

Writing at Fox & Hounds Daily, John Wildermuth offers an interesting criticism of California legislation that would require ballot initiatives that mandate spending to pay for themselves.

I've written favorably of the legislation, SCA-14 by Sen. Denise Ducheny, as a way to attack state voters' habit of approving spending without new revenues. But Wildermuth points out that almost every state ballot initiative produces some costs -- and in many cases, those costs are hard to quantify. So finding revenues for costs that can't be anticipated could be a difficult -- and complex -- task.

I'm not sure how to address Wildermuth's concern. Any ideas out there?

Over at Fox & Hounds Daily, Joel Fox and I are debating the wisdom of permitting legislatures to add a counter-proposal to each initiative that appears on a ballot. In this piece, Fox criticizes legislation in Oregon to do just that. And in response, I describe why I like the Oregon legislation and think counter proposals would strengthen direct democracy.

Here's my column in today's Fox & Hounds Daily about the constitutional convention summit. After reflecting on the summit, I think that what the boosters of a convention really want is major legislative reform -- that is, changes in how the legislature works, how lawmakers are elected, and how initiatives are put together. Those are worthy goals, but a convention must be broader.

Your blogger has done quite a bit of non-blog work lately on California topics. Here goes.

-On the LA Times and its problems, here's a piece called "The Morgue" (I didn't write the headline--the LA Times isn't going to die) from The New Republic and on the cancellation of the local news section from Fox & Hounds Daily.

-Here are my radio appearances this week on the Los Angeles NPR affiliate's show "Which Way, LA?" on the state's cash crisis and the ballot measures that will be needed to clean it up. Here's Monday's and Tuesday's. Both appearances came near the end of the broadcast.

-And I've become one of the cast of dozens contributing to Politico's In the Arena. The first post is here.