Budget deal.

Budget Deal: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders reached agreement on a $103 billion spending plan, ending an impasse that held up passage of a budget 27 days into the fiscal year. The budget compromise has no tax increases. The governor relies on $7 billion in bonds, loans and internal transfers and about $5 billion in spending cuts to cover a projected $14 billion deficit for the fiscal year that began July 1. The compromise came about when Republicans dropped their insistence that any attempt to borrow tax revenue from local governments in the future be done only with four-fifths vote of the Legislature. They instead agreed to a two-thirds vote (see related story, page 12).