If the state takes much longer to pass its budget, community colleges may run out of cash. A California Supreme Court ruling last May keeps the state from funding community colleges and some other programs before the state budget is passed.

Many campuses are dipping into reserve funds to pay employees, utilities and other bills.

San Bernardino County's community colleges should have enough cash to scrape by through late August. But September could get sticky.

"We're going to be really hard-pressed to pay our bills if this goes into September,' said Ray Eberhard, business manager for the San Bernardino Community College District, which includes Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa and San Bernardino Valley College.

This is the first time community colleges won't get state funding until the budget passes.

"This is my 40th year in public education,' Eberhard said. "I've been through a lot of recessions in this state. This is by far the worst that I've seen.'

Local college officials don't expect a state budget to pass any time soon.

"All the news we get is doom and gloom,' Eberhard said. "There's no ray of sunshine that they're going to get past this impasse. It's purely partisan at this point.'

This is the third year in a row that the state's Legislature has missed the July 1 budget deadline. Gov. Gray Davis signed last year's budget on Sept. 5.

"It gets very difficult once you get past this (July 1) deadline,' said Scott Lay, director of the State Budget Issues Community College League of California. "It's very easy when you're not up against a deadline not to come to an agreement.'

Most colleges, Lay said, have already cut nonessential spending, like travel.

"We're seeing more and more that any optional expenditures are being deferred and canceled,' Lay said. "We're tightening our belt significantly.'

Community colleges are operating on reduced budgets based on the governor's revised May budget. But the budget will likely change before it is passed.

"It's impossible to plan from one day to next,' Eberhard said. "We really don't know what tomorrow's going to look like.'

Local schools don't have emergency plans yet, but they are looking at their options.

If colleges do run out of money, Eberhard said, their options are limited. They can borrow money, but that costs more in the long run.

San Bernardino Community College district keeps about an 8 percent reserve. Victor Valley Community College in Victorville keeps about a 5 percent reserve, which spokesman Bill Greulich said should keep the college going through the summer.

"Beyond that I don't know what our alternatives would be,' Greulich said.

Barstow College is the exception to the rule.

A far-above-average 19 percent reserve allowed the college to guarantee its full-time employees jobs through the year, college President James Mesnek said.

"We should (be OK), unless they take a year to pass the budget,' Mesnek said. "We will continue to pay employees out of reserve.'

Earlier financial troubles prompted the Board of Trustees to maintain such a large reserve, he said.

"I think our situation is somewhat rare, but we're a small college,' Mesnek said.

Another thing that helps Barstow College is that the chairman of the Board of Trustees is an accountant and another board member owns a small business.

"They've been real sticklers on handling money,' Mesnek said.

But if the budget crisis continues, there might be layoffs next school year.

"We anticipate, quite frankly, that that the academic downturn will continue,' Mesnek said.

Other public colleges are also feeling the delay.

The state will continue to pay the Cal State University system's payroll at least through July, said spokeswoman Clara Potes-Fellow. But bills for services rendered won't be paid until the budget is approved.

"We're not in as bad shape as the community colleges,' said Bill Takehara, Cal State San Bernardino's associate vice president for finance.