EDITORIAL HOPE IN SACRAMENTO GOVERNOR MAKES PROGRESS ON BUDGET DEFICIT AS DEADLINE LOOMS.

FOR the first time in a very long while, the budget picture in Sacramento is looking a little brighter.

In just seven months, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has turned state government away from the financial cliff it was thundering toward. He has the state on the right fiscal track, although some of the toughest issues of cost cutting need to be faced as the deadline for passing a budget draws near.

This is the result of his whittling away, bit by bit, of the state's $13 billion deficit.

Critics labeled him a Gray Davis impersonator when Schwarzenegger presented a budget plan in January that came up with $350 million in federal funds and $500 million from Indian gaming.

But recently he managed to finagle about $480 million in savings and new revenues from the Bush administration in Washington, D.C. - the state's ``fair share,'' he said.

And the governor is now renegotiating gambling compacts with the state's Indian tribes, which is expected to bring in as much as $1 billion to shore up next year's budget as well as millions more each year in exchange for allowing tribes to expand gambling operations. Add in the constitutional spending limit and the reform of the state workers' comp system earlier this year, and it's no wonder that every new poll shows Schwarzenegger's support among voters growing even stronger.

With a Republican president and Republicans in power in Congress, Schwarzenegger has benefited in a way that Democrat Davis could not in getting federal funds.

It's not really fair that getting a better share of federal funds depends on political affiliation. But's that's the way things have long worked, and at least California is currently on the winning side of the battle. In so many other fights for federal funds, such as the cutting up of the homeland security pie, the most populous state gets short shrift.

Despite the improvement in the state's outlook, a lot of hard work remains to be done. The budget cuts that the governor and the Legislature hammer out in coming days are sure to be tough, and felt from one end of the state to the other.

Legislators need to understand that they got California into this mess and that getting a fiscally responsible budget signed by the end of the month is the least they can do in this election year.

Broad and deep support of voters remains Schwarzenegger's strongest weapon in getting a balanced budget on time, so voters have a chance to make a difference this election year by letting local legislators know that the mess in Sacramento needs to be cleaned up.