When Governor Schwarzenegger formally calls the session—he is also expected to announce how much the deficit has grown and how he plans to deal with it.  State Department of Finance Spokesman H.D. Palmer says the Governor doesn’t want to wait for the state’s economic problems to get worse. 

 “Not only is the governor going to propose budget solutions to address the shortfall in revenues we currently see, he also believes we need to take steps that we can to stimulate the state’s economy.”

The state budget deficit was projected at around three billion dollars last month. But after a steep slide on Wall Street— that number has been pegged closer to ten billion. Lawmakers won’t have much time to address the problem—the current legislative session ends at the end of November. A new group of lawmakers will arrive next month.