California Controller Gray Davis made nationwide headlines during the state's two-month budget impasse for sometimes paying the state's bills with IOUs and other times making herculean efforts to pay obligations on time and in cash.
But Ed Fong, Mr. Davis' spokesman, said the controller was unable to pay one comparatively small bill.
Mr. Davis' subscription to The Bond, Buyer came up for renewal during the lapse in the state's budget authority, and he was unable to scrape up the $1,897 needed to prevent it from expiring, Mr. Fong said. The newspaper, like other state vendors, apparently was not eligible for payment with a tax-exempt interest-bearing IOU.
As a result, Mr. Davis missed the newspaper's blow-by-blow coverage of the extraordinary legal and financial maneuvers he used to make $110 million of debt service payments due Sept, 1 on the state's lease revenue bonds, possibly adverting another threatened down-grade of the state's ratings, Mr. Fong said.
But with a new budget signed into law as of Sept. 2, Mr. Fong reports that the controller plans to resubscribe
"We have no intention of canceling. Gray sits on several dozen bond financing authorities, and it's important for him to stay abreast of what's going on," he said.
